The Sickness
by StreetFlare
Summary: You followed them through their early days in The Beginnings, now you get to see them in a whole new adventure, written from 2009 to 2010. Reviews, as always, are welcome, so enjoy...until my later and greater works are on here.
1. Prologue

Book Two: The Sickness Prologue

Will, Maddy and Kyle walked back towards the cave they had been living in for the two years.

"Man, that was fun!" Will cheered. Maddy giggled, while Kyle rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, fun. You dived headfirst off a cliff into a waterfall. Imagine what Maddy and I felt up until you surfaced!"

"Don't worry Kyle, I'm fine! Hey, what do you guys want for lunch?" Will asked as they entered their temporary home. Maddy and Will stopped in their tracks.

"Will, there's someone in here!" she squealed. Will quietly walked around until he could see her, then dived forward, wrapping his hands around the kid's arms, stopping her from moving.

"Who are you, kid. Did Jacob send you?" Will pressed.

"Please don't hurt me!" she whimpered, "My name is Crystal, and I've run for the last week looking for help for my village,".

Maddy nodded. "I'll do up some lunch, then we'll talk to you about this after that. Ok, Crystal?"

"Ok, miss," she stammered. The four of them sat down and ate roast meat sandwiches.

"Yum! You are a good cook, miss," Crystal said.

"Ok, Crystal. Don't call me 'miss', I'm Maddy. The fox is Kyle and the Echidna is Will. Please, tell us what happened."

"My full name is Crystal Cassandra Cat, but just call me Crystal. I'm 16. My village has been taken as slaves by a green echidna and a lot of people and robots. My friend Chance Cat, otherwise known as Clawz, attacked the echidna, but got beaten up and thrown out. I snuck out and walked with him out to find help. Clawz collapsed out in a forest, but urged me to come find help. I kept going, and I came in here to rest before I continue."

"A green echidna…Jacob…" Will murmured, "Crystal, could you please go outside with Kyle for a minute. Maddy and I have to discuss something,"

"Sure, Will. Come on, Crystal," Kyle cheered, talking to the first girl his age in ages.

"Will, I don't trust this. Take her to Princess, the girl you go fight crime with on occasion."

"No. She's having problems with Jacob, so it's my problem. I'm going with her, and that's that,"

"No! I think it sounds fishy. Something doesn't feel right, that's all I'm saying," Will got up, and kissed Maddy, wrapping her in a hug.

"Some things I have to do, and have to do alone. I'm off now Maddy. Good luck with Kyle," he whispered, before packing his backpack. He walked out to find Kyle and Crystal sitting right next to each other, with Kyle's arm around her shoulders and the two of them looking at each other, like they were about to…

"Hey, Crystal, Kyle, hello? Anyone home?" Will said, snapping them out of it.

"Yes Will?" Kyle asked.

"Maddy wants you inside, ok mate?"

"Sure Will," Kyle said, "Bye Crystal,"

"Bye Kyle," she replied, "So, have you decided?"

"I'm coming with you. Just me. That should be all the help you need, for now at least,"

"Ok then, but what if we need more help?"

"I can call for it, if required, but now we just need to get going."

"Ok, Mr. Will."

"Please, call me Will," Will said, motioning with his hand for her to lead the way.

"Sure, Will." Crystal replied, leading Will down the path she remembered, off towards the Forest of Light and her mountain village beyond it.


	2. A Long Way To Go

Part One Chapter One: A Long Way To Go

"So, just how far are we talking here? We've been walking for two days, and haven't even reached the Forest of Light!" Will groaned. He wasn't used to walking massive distances, but more Chaos Controlling straight there.

"Um, I think it's another week or two after the Forest, and the Forest is another week away," Crystal answered. Will frowned, then looked up into the dark and cloudy sky.

"I don't like the looks of those clouds. It's going to rain, and it's getting dark. We better set up camp here," he said, pulling his pack off and producing two tents. He quickly set up his, while Crystal started putting hers together. Quick as a flash, Will pulled out some of the packets of food they had out of his freezer pack and held them out towards Crystal.

"We have soup, sandwiches and some roast-type things," he said, focusing and creating fire around his hand, using it to warm up some meat for his dinner. Crystal quietly took a packet of soup, added water and got Will to heat it.

"So, we're a week off from the forest, and you STILL won't let me Chaos Control to speed us up. Why?"

"When Clawz attacked, the guy used some kind of Chaos sense to block and counter the attack. If we Chaos Control, we might as well be inviting him to attack us," Crystal said, a tear in her eye.

"You are close to this Clawz boy, aren't you?" Will asked.

"Yeah, he saved my life. A couple of times. I was crushed to have to leave him there on in the forest, but still…"

"I understand," Will nodded, then motioned to her tent as it started raining. "May as well have a snooze, the rain won't stop for a while. I'll keep watch like normal,"

"Sure, Will," Crystal got up, and walked over to her tent, "Night,"

"Goodnight, Crystal," Will replied softly, watching the area around them. He flinched, seeing a flicker, near a tree, then discounted it. He saw the same area move again and then realized what kind of trouble they were in.

"Crystal, wake up," he said with a decent volume. Crystal stuck her head out of her tent.

"What is it, Will?" she asked.

"We have trouble. Look over there," Will continued, pointing to where he saw the thing move. "My eyes aren't the best at night, but yours might be able to tell what

that thing is." Crystal squinted for a bit, then grabbed Will and threw him to the ground.

"What? What is it?" he asked, shocked.

'It's an Egg Pawn, armed with a gun. It appears to be looking for us, but the rain must be blocking its sensors,"

"Right. Time for me to get to work, I guess,' Will said flatly, getting up. Crystal reached over and pushed him back down.

"Allow me, I know how to deal with it," she said, getting up and standing in full view of the Eggman unit.

"HALT! CATS MUST BE COLLECTED FOR VILLAGE WORK!"

"Not in your lifetime, buddy. CRYSTAL RESONANCE!" Crystal yelled, pointing her hand at the drone. It seemed to shake for a second or so, then started collapsing on

itself.

"Woah!" Will exclaimed, watching the robot fall to pieces in front of him. "What did you do?"

"I can create resonance within crystals, or at least, I think that's how it works. Anyway, it makes them either grow or fall to bits. I used it on the crystal powering

this bot, and blew it. The robot fell to bits without electricity. I thought it was smart,"

"It was, but why do you need my help if you can do that?"

"I can't hurt organics with it so far, and it only effects metals and pre-created crystals. I never finished my training, so that's probably why,"

"Here they come, so let's deal with them together," Will said, getting up and dropping into a combat position with his back to Crystal's. "Only one squad, so that's

around ten bots. Ready?"

"Defiantly," came Crystal's reply, as the first of the bots popped up in front of Will.

"HALT! ECHIDNA WILL BE EXTIRMINATED!"

"Don't kid yourself. FLAMETHROWER!" Will yelled, launching a long beam of fire concentrated in the direction of the bot, with it starting to melt under the strain.

"CAT WILL BE CAPTURED!" droned another.

"If only that was going to happen," Crystal laughed, dropping a plain crystal onto the ground in front of herself then enlarging it, with an opaque side facing her. The

robot shot into the crystal, with its beam being reflected back into itself, destroying it.

"More coming. I got them," Will pointed out, running in that direction and drawing his saber and guy'viroth broadsword, spinning as he hit the first two bots, blocking

their shots with the flat of his broadsword while cutting them in half with his saber.

''Five down, five to go'', thought Crystal as Will fought another bot. Another pair of bots fired on her, but she had made her crystal surround her, protecting her from the lasers, as she manipulated it skillfully to make a crystal cannon, which she used to destroy one of the bots while Will dashed in and destroyed the other with a single slash of his broadsword. She lowered her shield and spun at the same time as Will, so they were both staring at the last bot. They both grinned at each other and raised their hands simultaneously. Will created a fireball in the palm of his hand while Crystal held an empty crystal. They looked each other in the eyes and shared an idea.

"FIRE CRYSTAL COMBO!" they cried as one, with the fireball and crystal merging into a Fire Crystal, a weaker form of a Flare Crystal. The small crystal resonated with the combined power, then rocketed off straight into the robot's head, which collapsed.

"Nice moves," Will complimented.

"You two, Will," Crystal smiled, her rain-soaked shirt and miniskirt grabbing Will's attention.

"Um, er, we should keep moving. If we hurry, we could reach the forest sooner, and I can beat Jacob's head in for you,"

"Why?" Crystal said, pulling herself closer to Will, "What are you afraid of?"

"Sorry Crystal, I've got a girlfriend, and I'm NOT going to cheat on her. Understood?"

"Of course, Will," Crystal said, but she had a look in her eyes that made Will edgy. He turned around and packed up the tents, hanging them off their packs, and the two

set off again.

"So, what's your village like?" Will asked Crystal.

"It's great! It's on a mountain, with a river and cliffs around it. There are three ways in, from up and down the mountain, and from the cliff's caves. All three give us access, but the choice is which one we use. Both mountain paths will be guarded, but the cave path is hard to access,"

"Alright, we'll decide later. Come on, lets' keep moving," Will said smartly. The two walked off in silence, before Will pointed at something.

"Is that a Flare Crystal?" He pointed at a fiery gem halfway up a tree. Crystal frowned, then walked over, elongating the crystal so she could examine it.

"Yeah, it is. I think we'll take it," she replied, reaching over and pulling the crystal off the tree, shrinking it and sticking it into Will's pack.

"Better get moving, if we want to reach the forest," she muttered, and they set off again.


	3. Know Your Enemy

**Chapter Two: Know Your Enemy**

"General! Transmission for you from the fat man!" cried a Dark Legion Technician, his body sweating as he moved his tails uncomfortably.

"Ensign. What were you told about intruding on me while I am in my study?" demanded the green echidna general in the full Dark Legion command uniform, his deep black eyes cruelly gazing against the poor fox ensign.

"Nnnnot to, General Jacob sir," the fox quivered, stuttering over the first word. Jacob gave a cruel grin and climbed out of the hammock he would often lie in while in his study, thinking about his actions and reaching out with Chaos Energy.

"Not to matter, Ensign. I will go see this transmission. I want you to check the sensors in the forest, because I sensed two groups of people incoming onto the Forest of Light. One group is just two people, and they are entering from the east. The other group has six, and are coming from the north. All of them are emitting large amounts of Chaos Energy, although two of them appear to be Crystal and Clawz, and are not generating as much as the others. Check it out, Ensign. That is all."

"Yyyes, sir. Thankyou, sir. That will be done, sir," mumbled the technician. Jacob rolled his eyes.

"How about NOW!" he bellowed, making the technician jump and bolt out as fast as he can. "What does Eggman want now?" Jacob wondered, walking out towards the communications room. All around him, his personnel would stop and salute. It's a good feeling to be both respected and feared by my subordinates he thought as he entered the chamber. There stood both a Dark Legion Technician and an echidna wearing a red hooded jacket and black jeans, and bore all the hallmarks of a member of the Flares, one of the gangs that had popped up out of the House of Thunda after the three princes left.

"Yo, J, where's my money?" the gangster asked. Jacob looked annoyed, but kept his voice calm.

"You will get your money when I see fit, and you can relay that to your boss, punk," Jacob said disdainfully. The gangster frowned and reached inside his jacket with each hand, pulling out a handgun in each.

"No, I'm going back to my boss with the money, over your dead body if I have to, J. Give me the money, or you're gonna be full o' lead!" the gangster pushed. Jacob instantly reacted. His hand flew to his side where he kept a knife at all times, drawing it with practiced ease. He spun, using the knife to slice straight through the gangster's wrists, then flipped himself over the gangster, holding his knife straight at the gangster's neck, applying pressure as needed as a Dark Acolyte raced in, having heard the alert activated by the technician.

"Understand this, punk. I gave you time to leave, and come back with reinforcements so you actually posed a threat. You attacked me, a fully trained Dark Acolyte and a general, in MY OWN BASE for money for your boss. Well, now you aren't going to get the chance to tell him with your voice, but maybe your head will convey the message just as well," Jacob drawled, before raising his head towards the Dark Acolyte, "Soldier, take him outside and finish him, then have his head sent to his boss. Also, take those pistols and give them to the techs for modification. Is that clear?"

"Yes sir!" the Acolyte snapped a salute, before grabbing and dragging the echidna outside, then returning, grabbing the pistols and turning to go.

"What's your name, Acolyte?" Jacob asked.

"Sir? It's Ziber, sir."

"Ziber, as in son of the Kommissar?"

"Correct, sir."

"Well then, you have my permission to return to your mother and tell her that Jacob just promoted you. Congratulations, Captain Ziber."

"Thank you, General!" Ziber cried spinning around with a massive grin on his face. However, as soon as he left, he looked furious.

"Mother will be glad for this information on the traitor's activities," he muttered.

Meanwhile, Jacob walked into the communications booth where a hologram of Dr. Eggman sat waiting for him.

"Jacob! Late again?" Eggman asked.

"Sorry, Doctor, but I had to deal with an assassination attempt," Jacob replied.

"I'm sorry to hear that. Maybe the offer I have for you will raise your spirits," the Doctor said.

"Ok then Doctor, let's hear it." Jacob motioned towards the hologram, which seemed to swell with plotting.

"Here I have a large number of badniks and Egg Pawn based robots for your use, and a special treat: the latest Metal Sonic, equipped with brand new retractable battle

claws that can emit poisons."

"Excellent, Doctor. I will be awaiting their arrival keenly,"

"They will arrive in approximately half an hour. I will also deploy some units from a nearby base into the Forest of Light for a scan, if you wish,"

"That would be very helpful, Doctor Eggman. I await further contact," Jacob finished, making a theatrical bow as the hologram of Eggman disappeared. He then exited the building to see a Dark Legion Technician cleaning up the blood with his tails as well as a mop. Jacob rolled his eyes and walked out to the training arena, where a new squad of experimental soldiers were being trained. They were armed with laser bows, and were pretty accurate.

"What soldier class is this, captain?" he asked the training captain.

"These are Dark Archers, sir. Made up completely of female hedgehogs, they are trained to shoot out robots,"

"Very nice, captain. Where are the Acolytes? I feel like training,"

"Well, the Acolytes are on patrol, but the best fighters amongst them are in the arena we built in this pathetic village, General,"

"Understood. I will go train against them, if that is ok by you, Captain,"

"Of course, sir," the training captain saluted, then rotated to continue his instructing. Jacob grinned and walked into the arena, where a group of Dark Acolytes, the elite soldiers of the Dark Legion, were dueling each other.

"Don't let me stop you, but I will take challenges, boys," Jacob said cockily. One of the two dueling Acolytes stopped, his halberd falling to his side.

"Ok, General, you're on. I've been training for a fight like this, so lets see how you do against me!"

"Brave, soldier, if not a little foolish," Jacob retorted, grabbing a spear from the pile of weapons there beside the ring, then walked in, instantly dropping into a combat position.

"Begin!" shouted the Acolyte refereeing, a little sheepishly. Instantly the two combatants raced towards each other, trying to knock the other over like jousting knights. At the last second, Jacob dived sideways, throwing his opponent off balance. He then followed up by channeling Chaos Energy through the spear, before throwing it. The Acolyte didn't have time to blink as the spear slammed into his arm, making him drop his halberd. He then felt himself being hauled to his feet, then a fist smash into his face, knocking him back down. He looked to see Jacob, the respected General, grinning cruelly, before helping the soldier up.

"Very well done, soldier. I wasn't expecting such a battle from you. I expect great things from you, great things indeed,"

"Thank you, General," the acolyte replied, massaging his swollen lip uncomfortably, spitting blood. At that moment, a Dark Legionnaire raced in.

"General! The robot army from Doctor Eggman has arrived!"

"Thanks for the fight, soldier. Maybe another time you might best me," Jacob saluted, until the soldier returned the salute.

"Maybe, General, maybe," he murmured. Jacob followed the Legionnaire out to the gates, which were opened, letting in the massive amount of badniks and Egg Pawns. At the lead of this decent-sized force was Metal Sonic.

"Greetings, General. Please take the time to inform Metal Sonic of its mission. In the meantime, I will have the robots transferred to your control room, with an override code built into them all, of course," Eggman's voice came out from the speakers on Metal Sonic's head, making it appear that Eggman was inside Metal Sonic. Jacob smiled, then began to speak.

"We will be fitting you with poison for your claws, just so you have more power in case the echidna brat comes along. You will have to shut down for the fitting process though."

"Affirmative. I will proceed to the tech lab for refit, General," replied Metal Sonic, who walked off to the tech lab. As soon as Metal Sonic entered the lab, Jacob pulled a small communicator out of his pocket.

"This is the General. Begin code 'optimization' at once," he said, before turning and watching the technicians swarm out with reprogramming devices and set to work on the robot army.

"Soon, those robots will never answer to Eggman again!" he laughed, before walking back to his study.


	4. Old Friends, New Foes

Chapter Three: Old Friends, New Foes

It had been two days, with Crystal and Will now on the outskirts of the Forest of Light.

"Well, we've made it this far, so let's keep going," Crystal enthused. Will frowned.

"I don't know, something in there is giving me weird feelings," he replied. Crystal grunted. "It's probably the Light Crystals in the forest, coz they can block Chaos

Energy signals,"

"No, I can still sense with Chaos Energy. It's elsewhere. Elusive," Will muttered.

"Keep your mind on what we're doing, Will. We have to get to the village one way or another, and the Forest is between us and there. Got it?"

"Understood. Let's get moving," Will started walking in, with Crystal on his heels. If either of them had looked around, they would have notice the pair of pure-black eyes watching them from the forest.

"I guess we just follow this path for now, right Crystal?" Will asked.

"Pretty much. There's a clearing up ahead, so be careful of guards," she replied, her orange ears flicking as she heard something.

"Will, move!" she screamed as an axe passed straight through a nearby tree.

"It's Eggman. I think that's an Egg Chopper. They used to patrol the Mushroom Forest on Angel Island before my Dad blew 'em up. I'll deal with this. Hide, Crystal, hide!" Will shouted as he formed a spear within his hand. With practiced ease, he leapt to the side of the axe, allowing the Chaos Energy to fuse with the flames he was creating at the same time.

"CHAOS FLARE!" he shouted, hurling the flaming Chaos Spear straight into the robot, with it exploding on contact. However, before the smoke even cleared, the giant axe

blade of the Egg Chopper passed straight through the smoke, just missing Will, who had dived aside at the last second.

"Great. He's Chaos-proofed them since my dad blew them up," Will muttered, drawing his saber and guy'viroth blade, coating the saber in Chaos Energy.

"CHAOS BLADE!" he screamed, hurling the saber straight into the robot's head, where it impaled and stuck.

"Crap. OK, now I'm getting annoyed. DIE!" Will frowned, then launched himself straight up onto the robot, getting his hands embedded into it before an Gun Pawn blasted him off.

"Bloody marvelous. Now what? Some hedgehog will kill that Gun Pawn and attack the Egg Chopper?" Will muttered, before seeing a red hedgehog with black eyes fly in, slicing straight through the Gun Pawn with a single slice before floating over to the Egg Chopper. Then the massacre began. The robot spun, trying to hit the rapidly-moving tiny target with its axe, only to have it smashed by the hedgehog's spines. The hedgehog then grabbed the axe handle, flipping itself off the end with pure strength, unleashing blast after blast of Chaos Energy into the torso of the bot. It then backflipped, held a hand out in front of their head and dropped straight through the Egg Chopper, slicing it in two. The hedgehog stood up, shaking out the debris out of his red fur and cracking his knuckles in his black gloves. His red muzzle and body blurred into each other like Dark Sonic's, although he was a good guy. Will grinned.

"Nice to see you, Blood. Nice timing with the kill!" At that point, a white hedgehog in a red shirt and blue pants walked in.

"Hey, Blood, I couldn't find any Eggman rob…damn. You could have told me you found a big one, and shared the fun!"

"Sorry Joineth, but finders keepers," BloodSonic replied happily. A pair of hedgehogs came in behind Will, one looking like a female Joineth and the other with hair somewhere between Blood and the female hedgehog, orange fur and blue eyes.

"Find anything, Dad?" the blue-eyed hedgehog asked, before actually realizing his dad was standing in a field of parts, "Ok, that is awesome!" The female hedgehog just walked over and gave Blood a kiss.

"Nice going, honey," she whispered. Blood smiled.

"Thanks, Jaime," Finally, a green hedgehog with cool hair half-walked, half fell in to the clearing.

"Oh, hey Vic," Will smiled. "The gang is hear, isn't it Blood? You, Jamie, Azure, Joineth and Vicious all here! What brings you guys out here?"

"We found a cat out here and Jamie insisted we take him back to the Island to heal, so we did. What about you? Where's Maddy?"

"I was asked to come out here to free a village of cats by a cat that ended up in the cave we've been living in. Maddy stayed back with Kyle while I came out,"

"A cat? Is she orange wearing a miniskirt and revealing shirt?" asked an orange cat who walked out from behind Blood and Jamie.

"Clawz?" Crystal asked, walking out from her hiding place, running over and embracing Clawz with a massive hug. Clawz grinned, although looked pained as though ribs were being crushed.

"Crystal, please, put me down! You're hurting me!" he pleaded, with her. Crystal smiled and put him down.

"So, Blood, care to join us? We're going to beat the crap out of Jacob's armies and then force Jacob to leave the village alone. What do you say?"

"Actually, we came here following Tonic. I suppose we could have a training fight against you, but where's the fun in training fights when I could be fighting Tonic?"

"Um, Blood, Eggman made mecha versions of you, Vicious and Joineth, before Jacob conquered our village, I saw 'em." Clawz added. Blood's stance changed into a combat stance.

"Ok, boys and girls, I'll help train you, then I'm gonna go kill Eggman's base. You with me, guys?" he asked, looking at his wife, son and friends.

"Yeah!" Azure shouted, with the others nodding. Blood then walked over to the other side of the clearing, then spun around.

"Will, attack me, and I'll fight back to train you, is that clear?" Blood asked, then swung backwards as Will's fist skimmed his nose. Blood instantly retaliated with a impossibly fast one-two combo into Will's chest, only to watch Will spin around and plant a kick firmly into Blood's chest, throwing him backwards.

"As you see, I've been training, as you taught me, so I can beat both Jacob and you!" Will called out. Blood grinned with excitement.

"Ok, let's see how well you do against a powered up opponent!" he yelled, his hair turning identical to Hyper Sonic's, with most of his fur darkening to a brown-black and his eyes staying black.

"Try to hit me now!" he yelled. Will didn't directly, but closed his eyes and started spinning, with his hands full of fire.

"What's he doing, Clawz?" Crystal asked.

"He's creating a whirlwind with flames, stopping Blood from getting too close to himself. It's got to be draining," Clawz replied as Will started slowing down. Blood just used a single blast to knock Will over, then floated over to him.

"Face it, Will, you're going to have to power up to fight Jacob, I'm telling you, he'll power up and I doubt you can deal with that," Blood finished as he powered down, then helped Will up.

"Yeah, I guess, and I got the perfect form to use on him!" Will laughed. Blood nodded to his group.

"If you'll be excusing us, we got a base to trash. Let's go, guys. Good luck, Will," Blood stated, before the group headed out to the nearest Eggman Base. Will looked to Crystal and Clawz.

"Lead the way, guys," he said, motioning with his hand. Crystal nodded, then started walking towards the village. Will and Clawz just looked at each other and walked after her.


	5. Return

**Chapter Four: Return**

Jacob stood on his balcony, watching out over the town while the sun set. The villages scurried around, constantly being watched by Dark Legionnaires, Dark Acolytes and the robots and badniks from Eggman. He smiled. Soon, the cats would either be free or his slaves for good. Eggman had confirmed that Will was nearby, as Jacob had sensed. It was all working out. There was creaking behind him. He didn't even look back, instead just saying "Hello, Metal Sonic,"

"Greeting. Good evening, General. Military efficiency at maximum."

"Excellent to hear. Tell me, how effective are you at fighting powered-up opponents?"

"Clarification. Prior versions have 0.01% success rate. This unit has a 50% rate expected."

"Very good. Now, do you sense anything coming in the night?"

"Irritated point. General, this unit is not programmed to detect future events, and is not designed to."

"Of course," Still, Jacob didn't look at the robot behind him. Instead, he pulled out the one photo he had of his family, with him as a little kid with a baby sister and parents. They had been poor, which led to him leaving. His thoughts went to Enna, the girl he loved. I'd give it all up to destroy that echidna, he thought.

"Dismissed, Metal Sonic. I shall remain."

"Acknowledged. Good night, General," droned the robot, which was followed by a series of buzzes and whirs as Metal Sonic departed. Jacob still didn't look back, his deep black eyes staying fixated on the forest.

"Where are you?" he murmured to nobody in particular.

Will followed Crystal and Clawz into the underground catacombs, his thoughts swirling around rapidly. ''The sound of our walking probably would have set off any sound sensors'', he thought. Suddenly, the cats stopped. Will did too, and saw a small trap door. Crystal had Will and Clawz lift her up, then knocked on the base. There was movement above it for a second, then the door came up to reveal the happy face of a black cat with brown hair. She reached down and helped Crystal climb up, then helped Clawz, then moved out of the way as Will leapt straight up through the hole. He looked around. They were in a dirt-walled storeroom full of rubble and other mining gear. He then looked at the cat who'd helped them. She wore a jacket, bikini top and blue jeans. Her chocolate-brown eyes shone as she wrapped Crystal and Clawz in a hug.

"Crystal! Clawz! I'm glad you guys made it back, and with help too!" she said, then turned to Will, a smile still obvious on her mouth.

"I'm Kit. I guess you're here to help with our little Dark Legion problem. Stay here. Crystal, Clawz, you guys have people waiting to see you outside," she said, opening the door for the others as Will stood up, picking bits of rubble out of his jacket.

"So, Kit, I take it you guys have to work for Jacob, right?"

"How do you know him?" she asked, clearly shocked. Will grinned his unique, lopsided grin.

"Let's say we've met before," he replied. Kit's eyes went wide. She turned and opened up the door again, then motioned for him to follow her out.

"Attention, guys. This echidna is Will. He's fought Jacob before and beat him, and now has come here to free us!" she said. The other cats looked at each other, before one of them started clapping and cheering. The others followed suite until they were all cheering. Then there was knocking at the door.

"What's going on in there?" shouted the soldier on the other side. Clawz motioned everybody to be quiet, while Kit and Crystal pushed Will under the bed to hide. However, as soon as the door opened and the Dark Acolyte entered, Clawz spun around and attacked, slashing his claw through the Acolyte's staff before he could blink, than dragging him inside, where he started slashing the poor echidna's back. The guy opened his mouth to scream; only to have Clawz's little brother Crackers hit him on the head, knocking him out.

"We aren't going to take their crap, so let us rise together and reclaim our home!" Clawz shouted, with the villagers raising the roof with their cries of support. Crystal dragged Will out from under the bed while Kit grabbed her katana from its hiding place. Everywhere in the house, people were withdrawing weapons or getting ready to fight. Two of them looked out the windows, then nodded to Kit and Will, who cut the door down with their swords. Instantly the mob when wild. Every single person found a target and started decimating it. Will whooped as he barreled along, using his swords to deflect laser blasts and also to bring down soldiers that strayed to close to him. Kit and Crystal stuck with him, until they reached Jacob's command base. There, Will gave up on cutting his way through with his swords, instead sheathing them and using his strength to punch his way through the walls. Kit instantly dived through as the wall came down, her body moving fluidly with her katana as she brought down Dark Legionnaire and Dark Acolyte after Dark Legionnaire and Dark Acolyte. Crystal used the crystals in her body to create crystalline claws for herself, which she used to slice straight through things while Will barreled straight down the corridor into a separate room inhabited, as far as Will could tell, by one person. He didn't even look back as Will ran up, but instead, let his green dreadlocks swing, even the place where he was missing a chunk from Will's sword.

"Hello, Will," he said. Will stopped running, with Kit stopping beside him and Crystal rampaging behind them.

"Jacob. Give up. It's over!" Will said, his voice devoid of emotion. Jacob then looked over his shoulder, giving a dark smile.

"Over? You don't get it. This fight's barely begun. My army started mobilizing today. The people here are some of the better troops, but they make a small portion of my full army!" Jacob then noticed Kit and Crystal. "Oh yes, the maid and the runaway. How fitting for the two of you to come to die with your new friend!" Kit spun, grabbed Crystal, then threw her out of the way while Will drew his Guy'viroth broadsword and saber. Jacob grinned.

"Here's something I learned from watching a schoolyard fight!" he yelled, giving Will a sinking feeling. Jacob's eyes were the first thing to change, turning from their soulless black to a deep red, revealing deeply frayed retinas, as if his eyes were burned from the inside. Next, his clothes changed, with his jacket turning orange and pants turning emerald green. Finally, his hair turned bright yellow from the green it had been. Will looked at Kit, who looked mildly shocked to say the least. Jacob then grabbed a battleaxe which had sat near him and spun to face his opponents. Will nodded to Kit, then whirled around, blocking Jacob's sudden attack while Kit attacked him from behind. Jacob wasn't an inexperienced fighter, disengaging his axe from Will's twin blades and spun around to knock Kit off her feet, slicing straight through her jacket.

"Oh yes, the hot cat maid. Don't think I didn't notice you," Jacob taunted, closing his eyes and appearing to focus heavily on something. Will sensed a power increase within Jacob.

"CHAOS…KAIOKEN!" Jacob screamed, his power increasing 50 times. Will heard a thruster firing, and wasn't surprised to see Metal Sonic flying behind him.

"Fine, if that's how you want to play…" he muttered, taking his jacket off and throwing it to Kit, then tapping into the vast levels of Chaos Energy in his body, he allowed the energy to flow through himself and start powering up. First thing to change was his dreadlocks, flowing up into a flaming sort of style and turning bright orange. His gloves turned blue, with his eyes turning orange and the whites of his eyes turning deep green. Jacob's mouth was wide open, while Kit's eyes reflected the light coming off the flames he was emitting.

"Let's play! I got more power than you now, in my HyperBlazing form!" he shouted. Jacob looked at Metal Sonic, which whirred.

"Fine. Lets' see what your HyperBlazing form can do against a super form and a robot!" came Jacob's reply.


	6. Duel of the Strong

**Chapter Five: Duel of the Strong**

Blood was trashing Eggman's base, with Mecha Blood in pieces around him. Suddenly, he sensed a massive Chaos Energy surge, then another, larger one. Instantly, he guessed he knew what that was. Jacob must have powered up, and Will powered up higher to beat him. Even though he had a positive idea about what was happening, he had that sinking feeling that something was wrong.

"Vic, finish this. I'm going to go check on Will, coz something doesn't feel right,"

"I get it Blood. Good luck," came Vic's reply as Blood turned and Chaos Controlled away.

Meanwhile, HyperBlazing Will was locked in an epic duel with Super Jacob and Metal Sonic, with Will finding it hard to keep fighting both sides of the duel at once. ''If I can knock one of them out of the fight, the other will be easier to beat,'' he thought. He dodged Jacob's battleaxe slash, then blocked Metal Sonic's claws. Will spun, planting a powerful punch into Jacob's hand, with Will feeling satisfaction at the crunch it produced. Jacob dropped his axe and yelped. Suddenly, Will felt himself fly off balance as Metal Sonic punched him. Will spun, heading towards the Forest of Light, and hearing Metal Sonic and Jacob follow him. Jacob caught him first, striking him in the chest, but Will retaliated by smashing his body into Metal Sonic, throwing the robot backwards. Jacob then struck Will in the back while Metal Sonic charged in and headbutted him in the gut. Will felt the air in his gut get forced out and his mind start losing track of his surroundings. He shot forward, pivoting and planting his feet into a tree, then launching himself at Jacob, forming a disk of flaming Chaos Energy around his hand.

"FIRE DISK!" he shouted, hurling the spinning disk straight into Jacob, throwing him into another tree.

"So, this fight moves out of just physical attacks. Interesting. Oh well…" he muttered, as Metal Sonic launched a fireball out of its jet thrusters at Will, which just disappeared upon contact with Will's fiery HyperBlazing form. Jacob then charged in, punching Will and throwing him to the ground. Will caught himself before hitting the ground and threw himself back up into the line of fire.

"SOLAR FLARE!" he screamed, hurling the flaming Chaos Spear straight into Metal Sonic. Jacob charged in, with Metal Sonic behind him. Jacob pulled out a control unit out of his jacket and pressed a pair of buttons, bringing a pair of Jet Pawns out of the forest, while Metal Sonic harassed Will's defenses. The Jet Pawns positioned themselves behind Will, then the first one started shooting small metal shards into Will while the second shot a series of bullets. Will closed his eyes and spun, using his right hand to form a flaming shield, which blocked the array of ammunition. He then followed that up with a Fire Spray, shredding the Jet Pawns. Jacob frowned, drawing his knife and diving in, slashing straight into Will's hair. Metal Sonic then started shooting fireballs into Will, with all of them failing to break through. Will grimaced. Only one thing for it now…

"CHAOS BLAST!" he yelled, unleashing a massive amount of Chaos Energy all around himself, making himself power down to Blazing. Suddenly, he noticed something. Jacob was on the ground, unconscious, but Metal Sonic was still active and coming. Will then felt his remaining Chaos Energy start rolling away from the amount he needed to maintain his Blazing form. As he powered down, he noticed Metal Sonic race in towards him, and stabbed him with its claws.

Blood arrived in the village to see it full of carnage. A pair of cats, one with a fishing trident, the other with a boomerang, saw him and prepared to attack, until Clawz jumped to his defense.

"Cool it, guys. He's a friend," Clawz said. The two cats reluctantly walked off.

"Where's Will?" Blood asked.

"I don't know. He ran off with Kit and Crystal to face Jacob, and then he disappeared, as did Jacob and Metal Sonic. Blood frowned, then followed Clawz over to Jacob's command building where Kit and Crystal stood.

"Where's Will, girls?" Blood asked again. Crystal shrugged. Kit motioned towards the forest.

"He went down there. He powered up to some form called HyperBlazing, then flew off fighting Jacob, who was Super, and Metal Sonic," Blood realized just how angry he was.

"Ok, Kit, can you show me where he is?"

"Sure,"

"Clawz, stay here with Crystal. Kit, hold onto me. CHAOS CONTROL!" Blood shouted, leaving with a blue glow where he and Kit had stood.

Will screamed as the claws drilled into his chest, and felt poison flow into his body. Instantly, he formed and threw a Chaos Spear, even though it put his body into more pain, as if the poison was getting worse. Metal Sonic pulled its claws out of Will, then swung a punch at his head, which Will barely blocked. He turned and ran, trying to draw up enough Chaos Energy to Chaos Control to Maddy and Kyle, but he found the energy kept 'moving' out of reach. Metal Sonic caught him with ease, attempting to smash his head into a tree. Will ducked, diving into the ground and digging down underneath a tree. Metal Sonic couldn't follow him, but he launched a pair of fiery blasts down the tunnel. Will instantly made the tunnel collapse, blocking the fire, but a metal hand burst through the dirt, grabbing him by the neck and dragging him up.

"''Note: you fight, even though it is futile. You will not survive, but the doctor will be happy for the data this unit collected. Plotting tone: now, this unit shall finish you,''" Metal Sonic droned, raising Will into the air and swinging its fist at Will's head, aiming for the 'sweet' spot in the skull. Will closed his eyes, waiting for the fight to be over with his death. After about 30 seconds without anything happening, there was a sudden noise.

"YOINK!" someone yelled, and Will opened his eyes to see a familiar red hedgehog waving a robotic arm in the air.

"Looks like Kit got me here right on time, Will. Now, let me deal with Metal Loser here before I check your wounds," Blood grinned, before spinning and smashing his foot into Metal Sonic's torso section, throwing Metal Sonic away. Will could barely see the duel of two experienced fighters from the blood now covering his eyes and his semi-conscious state, but he still managed a single word.

"Blood…" Blood looked at Will, taking his attention from Metal Sonic for long enough for the robot to kick him into the muddy remains of Will's tunnel. Blood got up, his deep black eyes glinting slightly as he swung a backwards kick straight into Metal Sonic's head, knocking the robot backwards into a tree, before forming Chaos energy in his hands

"Time to end this!" he yelled, spinning and blasting a massive beam of Chaos Energy into Metal Sonic, then followed it up with a series of punches into Metal Sonic's head, finishing with a sudden kick into Metal Sonic's torso, shattering it.

"''Download complete. This unit may die, but subsequent units will benefit,''" Metal Sonic droned, before Blood kicked the head away like a soccer ball, and Kit walked out from her hiding place to examine Will's injuries.

"Blood, he's been stabbed in the chest, and had his head cut. He's lost a fair bit of blood. What should we do?" she asked. Blood swore as Vic and the others arrived.

"Vic, Joineth, Azure, I want you to return to the Isle of Blood and wait for us there. Jamie, could you Chaos Control to Mobotropolis with Crystal and Kit? I'm going to take Will there, with a single stop on the way. Ok?" Vic and Joineth nodded, while Jamie smiled and took Crystal's and Kit's hands, then Chaos Controlled away, with Clawz in hot pursuit.

"Do I have to, Dad? I mean, I'd rather be there with you and mum!" Azure protested.

"Azure, go with Joineth and Vic. All we're going to do is drop Will off, ok?"

"Ok, fine Dad," Azure sulked, before Chaos Controlling away, followed by the others. Blood looked at Will, who laid there unconscious, then picked him up and Chaos Controlled away like everyone else.

Maddy and Kyle were finishing their dinner when Blood arrived into the cave they lived in with Will. Maddy instantly screamed and grabbed a bottle of water, which she emptied out into her hands then pressed against Will's chest as Blood placed him on the table, only to have the water turn black.

"I can't heal him. I hate to say it, but we have to head home. Kyle?"

"It looks like the only thing we can do, I guess. You coming with us, Blood?"

"May as well, considering you couldn't lift him if you tried," Blood retorted, as Maddy gathered up her possessions, as did Kyle, then they gathered Will's gear too.

"Where's his jacket?" Maddy asked.

"A cat's looking after it, ok? We better hurry, as it looks like he's getting worse," Blood grunted, lifting Will back over his shoulder while the others stood besides him.

"CHAOS…CONTROL!" they shouted, and disappeared as a group.

Knuckles was on his nightly patrol, checking on the Master Emerald when he saw four figures appear, one holding another over it's shoulder. Instantly, Knuckles was ready for attack, but the only female figure ran to him, where he recognized it as Maddy.

"Maddy? What's happened? Where's Will?" he asked, flustered. Blood stepped forward, still with Will over his shoulder.

"Oh, hell no. That can't be…" Knuckles muttered, then took Will off Blood, and set off running towards the hospital, with the others following, hoping Will would be alright.


	7. Dark Prognosis

**Part Two**

**Chapter Six: Dark Prognosis**

"I'm sorry sir, but your son has a disease that we have never seen before," the doctor said. Knuckles appeared to calmly reach down and pat the doctor on the shoulder, before lifting him up and violently shaking him.

"How dare you!" he roared. Julie-Su placed her hand on Knuckles' shoulder, making him put the doctor down. A pair of nurses raced in, helping their friend into a chair.

"I'm sorry about my husband. He has anger problems. Look, can you treat out son?' she asked the fox. All he could do was shake his head.

"I want him to be kept here, until we think of a way to cure him," he blustered. Knuckles instantly leveled the poor doctor with a punch to the head, knocking him out!

"I don't want you to do that, and I have reason to believe that he'd just be an experiment in your hands," Knuckles growled, baring his teeth at the nurses who raced in, "Look, if you want him here, I need your word that you WON'T be experimenting on him."

"We're sorry, sir, but we cannot give that word," a cat nurse said, as the other one ran out. Knuckles looked ready to hit someone, as a new doctor walked in. However, this new doctor looked familiar…very familiar.

"Dr. Quack!" Knuckles cheered, clapping the duck across the back, making him stumble.

"Knuckles! What a surprise! And who's this young man here?"

"That would be my son, Will. He's sick, doc. Very sick. Can you help?"

"Hmmm, let me see," Dr. Quack muttered, poking and prodding Will, with no outward signs of life in Will's body, "Very shallow breathing, very low pulse and numerous stab marks in his chest. I don't know, but this is a lot more severe than I was told. All his symptoms are signs of different diseases, but this is not something I have ever seen before. Nurse Hope, collect me the equipment for a blood test. Nurse Jennifer, Nurse Kathy, hook this boy up to a life-support machine. I'm sorry, Knuckles, Julie, but I must ask you to leave for now," At that point, the cat nurse ran out, while a hyena and a hedgecat nurses stayed behind as Dr. Quack ushered Knuckles and Julie-Su out.

"You should be able to return within half-an-hour, I think," the kind doctor informed his parents. As Knuckles and Julie-Su collapsed into the hospital chairs, they heard a familiar voice calling them. The pair of echidnas turned to see Rouge within the hospital, without Shadow or the kids.

"Rouge, what are you doing here?" Julie-Su asked.

"Oh, Shade was being a fool on a skateboard and landed bad, and he broke his leg. Shadow's in with him now, with Dawn caring for the kids. I came here when Amy got through to me about Will. How is he?"

"It's no disease that's ever been seen on Mobius, we've been told. They're hooking him up to life support as we speak.

"That's terrible! Can we help in any way? Maybe the Chaos Emeralds…" Knuckles got up.

"Look, Rouge, I appreciate the offer, but I really think that the doctors should deal with this. I'll be back soon, Julie,"

"Where are you going, honey?"

Knuckles yelled over his shoulder as he walked off "Anywhere but here,"

Knuckles climbed up the final few meters to the top of the Monolith, the new training center that he had been a member of designing, building and using to teach. He sat, legs over the side haphazardly. There was nothing between him and falling, but he didn't care. All the money, all the technology, everything within the Monolith, and it still couldn't save his son. Even Dr. Horatio Quack, one of the best doctors on Mobius, still couldn't even diagnose him.

"I thought I could find you here, Knucklehead," came a very familiar voice from behind him.

"Sonic. Go away. I don't need your help,"

"Just like I didn't need Shadow and Silver to beat Mephiles? Knuckles, being alone hurts you more. Besides, we're two parts of a team. Together, we can do anything!"

"Even cure my son?" Knuckles quipped, his voice carrying an acid tone. Sonic paled. He knew just how bad Knuckles had been over the last two years, even spending time in hospital for being foolish and entering fights he could never win to drown his sorrows. Now he had his son back, but at what cost?

"Knuckles, listen. Whatever it is that is hurting Will, they will figure out a cure. He will make it, do you understand?"

"I hear you, Sonic, but my heart doesn't feel it," Knuckles retorted, shedding a tear. Sonic stepped forward, attempting to comfort his friend, but he slipped, and started to fall off the massive tower. However, as soon as he lost his footing, he found a hand around his wrist, holding onto him as they glided down towards a nearby building. Sonic looked up at Knuckles, who had tear-lines down his face, as well a teary eye, although he landed them safely on top of the hospital.

"Knuckles…" Sonic started, but was silenced by Knuckles, who started talking.

"Sonic, look. I get it. I saved you, but right now, just leave it. And about Will, well, I guess Team Sonic might be able to think of something, epically Tails. Look, I want to get back to my son, and I'm sure you have other stuff to do…"

"Now, listen here, Knucklehead. Maddy's at home crying her eyes out about Will, and that she couldn't heal him. If anyone's going with you, it's her. Understood?" Sonic said, finding his voice. Knuckles blinked, then gave a faint smile, which both could see was obviously forced.

"Sure, Sonic. Get word to her, and you and Amy come too, if you want."

"Alright, Knuckles," Sonic replied, slapping Knuckles across the back in a friendly gesture, then started walking off. However, he didn't get far before stopping.

"Hey, any chance of a lift down?"

Knuckles walked back down the hospital corridor, nodding to the nurses and doctors he knew. Sonic, Amy and Maddy followed him, until they reached

Will's room. As they entered, Dr. Quack gave a sad smile.

"Knuckles, I'm so sorry, but I cannot figure out the cause of this disease, and so how to cure it. I tried everything, even diseases with no known cure, but there were no matches. I'm so sorry," Maddy turned, trying to hold back tears. Amy motioned to Julie-Su and Lara-Su, who were there with them, and wrapped them all in a group hug. Sonic stuck his hand on Knuckles shoulder, while Knuckles felt his insides start turning and churning, a sensation he hated.

"He started waking up while you were away, but he was in agony. I had him placed in a medical coma until we figure out a cure, which I think is a long way off, in my educated opinion,"

"But, Doc, wouldn't a lab be better?" came a youthful voice from the corridor. Knuckles and Sonic turned at the same moment to see Tails walk in.

"Tails!" Sonic cried happily. Knuckles managed a weak nod at his friend.

"Dr. Miles Prower! I am pleased to see you," Dr. Quack blustered.

"Dr. Horatio Quack. I am pleased that they got a talented doctor on the case, but I fear that that will not be enough," Tails said to the duck.

"I am only one person! I cannot do this!" Dr. Quack groaned, and Tails nodded.

"Exactly. I'm thinking about clearing out some room in my lab, and getting some contacts together to think of a cure. It clears up a bed here, and your own busy schedule, Doctor," Knuckles gave a faint smile, but Dr. Quack was harder to please.

"How are you going to keep him alive while he's in your lab? I mean, you cannot have a life-support unit and anesthetic in your lab, so how will you keep him asleep?" To that, Tails had an answer.

"Cryostatis,"

"I beg your pardon?"

"I said, cryostatis. Keeping the body on ice. Putting the body into a frozen state until we think of a cure,"

"How do you freeze him without killing the poor lad?"

"Maddy, could you come here, please?"

"Me?" Maddy asked tentatively, confused by Tails' request.

"Yes, you, Maddy. Have you been practicing with your powers? Namely, your control over water?" he suggested, being as gentle as he could.

"Umm, yes, why?"

"Maddy, this would be hard for you, but I'd want you to use your powers as a healer and as a water controller to freeze him,"

"To do what?"

"Freeze him. Guide him into cryostatis, but make sure he's still alive,"

"I guess, if I really have to…"

"You see?" Tails pressed, spinning to face Dr. Quack.

"I suppose this idea has merit. If the family gives consent, then I guess that you can proceed,"

"Knuckles, Julie, I just want you to tell me whether you give me permission to do this. If you can, then Maddy and I can put him into cryostatis and transfer him to the Monolith's laboratories where Kyle and I can instantly start work, and we can get help from some of the greatest minds on Mobius. What do you say?" Tails asked, putting force behind some of it but being gentle in others. Knuckles and Julie-Su looked at each other, allowing each other to weigh it up, before speaking in unison.

"We sure do!" Tails nodded to them, before ushering everyone out but Maddy, then brought in a small tub of water, with the nurses constantly bringing more.

Over two hours, Maddy froze more and more of Will's body, until she was exhausted and he was completely frozen in a cryogenetic tube chamber. Tails nodded to her, switching on the machine he had had brought over from the Monolith to keep Will frozen. Maddy looked up at him, feeling her heart rate skyrocket.

"Go home, Maddy," he said, gently.

"I'm needed here!" she protested, although she felt utterly drained. Tails frowned, his eyes giving away how much he knew.

"No, you aren't, and you know it. Will's being transferred to my lab in the Monolith, and I'm not leaving him until there is a cure for him,"

"That could be ages! How will you survive in your lab?" she asked feebly, both knowing she was stalling. Tails laughed.

"I'll sleep in one of the dormitories, have Cream and Vanilla bring me food and Kyle will defiantly come help me study this disease. It also gives me a break from my family. I mean, having seven kids is pretty intense!" Maddy smiled. She'd visited earlier that week to catch up with the others, but the three youngest kids Micayla, Ron and Sasha ate up her time.

"I get it. I suppose I better go home," she yawned. Tails nodded once, before throwing her a passcard.

"You'll need this to visit him in my lab!" he yelled, before helping a pair of nurses move Will's cryo tube onto a stretcher, taking Will away.


	8. Search For a Cure

**Chapter Seven: Search for a Cure**

Tails sat in his laboratory, fiddling around with his microscope. Kyle sat at a separate bench playing around with the security system's targeting systems, setting Jacob and Dark Legionnaires as the priority targets. Both were just stalling for the other great minds of Mobius to arrive: Dimitri, former grandmaster of the Dark Legion, and Rotor the Walrus, former technician in the Freedom Fighters. Dimitri arrived first, greeting the two foxes politely and formally.

"Good day, Doctor Miles. Good morning, Kyle. I only wish that we met under more enjoyable circumstances,"

"As do we, Dimitri," Tails replied, giving a polite bow. Kyle looked up, smiled, waved to the floating robotic head that was Dimitri, then got back to fiddling with the targeting systems. Dimitri walked over to the cryo tube, where Will lay asleep.

"Ah, great-grand nephew. I am sorry that you are in this condition. Dr. Miles, is it ok if I take a blood sample for examination?"

"No need. I've got some being separated at the moment, and I'm looking at this weird reaction of a pair of Chaos Emerald Shards that Knuckles and Shadow tried to use on Will to heal him. They've turned black, almost as if something's corrupting the energy within the Emerald," Tails muttered, focusing on the shard through his microscope. Dimitri walked over to the separator, watching it's control panels until it rung, then withdrawing a blood sample with a robotic dreadlock, then floating over to a microscope set.

"If only Doctor Fineventus was here," he murmured. Tails' head flew up.

"Fineventus! Of course! I knew we forgot someone! Kyle, could you…"

"Dad, I just sent him a request. Also, Rotor's here with some gear," Kyle yelled over his shoulder, opening the doors for Rotor to enter.

"Tails! Kyle! Good to see you two again!" Rotor cheered, then frowned when he saw Dimitri, "Oh, hello Dimitri,"

"Good day, Rotor Walrus. It is a pleasure to work with you. If only it was a more enjoyable reason." Kyle stuck his hand up over his shoulder and waved, keeping his attention on the computer. Rotor walked over to Will, then looked at Tails.

"Have you collected a muscle sample, Tails? His muscles might have been

damaged by the freezing or by the sickness itself."

"Good point, Rotor. Go ahead," Tails muttered, as Sonic's Uncle Chuck entered, as he had been for the last couple of days.

"Rotor! Dimitri! Nice to see you two again!" he shouted. Dimitri smiled as much as a floating robotic head could.

"You too, Charles." He said, as Rotor lifted his head.

"Oh, hello Chuck! I'm just getting a muscle sample. Be right with you!"

"Um, dad?" Kyle called out, having already seen Chuck over the last couple of days.

"Yes, Kyle?"

"Fineventus isn't coming, said he can't make it to this session. Also, we have an interloper," Kyle yelled. Instantly, Tails leapt into the air, spinning his tails so rapidly that he created a downdraft on everyone beneath him as he flew to Kyle.

"Who or what is it?" he asked his son. Kyle looked at him bleakly.

"It's a Mecha version of you," came the inevitable reply. Instantly, Tails was in command mode.

"Power down external weapons! I'm going to get prepared to fight!"

"Dad, you aren't a fighter! You're a genius and a scientist! Sure, you can fight, but it doesn't mean you should!" Kyle protested. Tails smiled.

"Son, you haven't been home for two years, and I've been training just in case we have to fight to get to you. I've got a few tricks up my sleeve."

Mecha Tails was having a very easy time sitting outside, with its white flag flapping besides it. It had gone into sleep mode, with Eggman watching it's surroundings through a micro camera fitted into one of the ears. Suddenly, the robot found itself being awoken by both Eggman's signal and a proximity alert. It opened its 'eyes', and spotted Tails, who stood by the door with a swirling blue ball of energy in his hand.

"It appears to be an incomplete attack, so withdraw your flag and reveal it to him!" came the voice of Doctor Eggman within the unit's head. It raised its right arm, with the white flag clenched within it. Tails appeared to freeze, powering down the Rasengan he had been forming.

"I take it you are a messenger from Eggman, aren't you?" Tails asked, watching carefully.

"Affirmative," it responded, with a metallic buzz.

"Well, what did ol' Robuttnik have to say?" Tails pushed, ready to attack if required.

"Is that any way to speak in a truce, you miniscule little pest?" Eggman yelled through the speakers in Mecha Tails' head.

"What's this about, Egghead?" Tails countered, glaring at the robot.

"Oh, come, come, Tails! I would have thought that you would be welcoming me with open arms! I mean, you have the greatest minds of Mobius there, and I'm not invited? How very rude of you!" Eggman returned, and Tails had to admit it was true. Aside for trying to take over Mobius, Eggman had actually proven himself to be a genius, although lacking in the intelligence to realize he couldn't conquer Mobius.

"I guess, Robuttnik. Are you going to come in person, or is this ugly piece of junk going to be remote controlled by you?"

"Ugly? I designed it off you! I will be coming myself, I think. Mecha Tails, return to base. Tails, I shall be there shortly," Eggman muttered, before cutting the connection. Mecha Tails looked at Tails for a few seconds, before orienting it's tails at the ground, revealing them to be rocket boosters. It flew off, but Tails didn't feel any more secure with that knowledge. Instead, he turned and reentered the Monolith.

Eggman arrived a half-hour later. He took massive strides with his long spindly legs, and looked altogether like a walking egg with a moustache.

"Dimitri. Rotor. Charles. I am pleased to be working alongside you fellows," he proclaimed.

"Doctor," Dimitri muttered.

"Hello, Robotnik," Rotor grunted.

"Good morning, Ivo." Uncle Chuck nodded at Eggman, before looking back at the black shard of the Chaos Emerald that Tails had been examining. Tails was now napping across the corridor in a dormitory, with Kyle collecting results of all the tests. Eggman examined the cryo tube, intrigued by it's complexity.

"Ingenious! Tails is a genius for thinking of this!" Eggman cheered, attracting looks from the other four people in the room. Kyle opened up the combined results, just as Tails staggered in, looking exhausted.

"Ok, what do you guys have?" he asked, using a desk to support himself. Kyle turned on his projector, revealing the results to everyone. Charles, Rotor and Dimitri stood up.

"Well, it appears that this poison is functioning as at least a two-stage disease. Stage One is infection of the body's natural Chaos Energy levels. In this case, due to Will's impossibly high Chaos Energy reserves, the aforementioned reserves limited access to his Chaos Energy to stop the disease from progressing to Stage Two. However, he still used that Chaos Energy, and also was Chaos Controlled twice, allowing the poison to proceed to Stage Two. Dimitri?" Uncle Chuck finished, motioning for Dimitri to proceed.

"Stage Two attacks the body. It focuses on destroying and infecting cells, including blood, muscle and fat cells. It attacks indiscriminately, annihilating the body's ability to function, but only can do so while it has access to the main infection, the Chaos Energy." Dimitri nodded to Tails as Rotor continued.

"By placing Will into cryogenetic suspension, the poison is cancelled out, and cannot resume it's assault on his body until he is defrosted and awake, drawing on the Chaos Energy in his day-to-day life as we all do. However, I cannot see a cure to this at the present time. I just hope…" It was at this point when a second Eggman entered. He was identical to the Eggman in the room, except for the gigantic obnoxious grin and the rubber glove stuck on his head like a chicken's comb. Everyone turned to face the intruder.

"Who did this!" Eggman roared, turning red with anger. The new Eggman kept grinning.

"I Chicken Man. I hatched," he said. Everyone looked at each other in confusion.

"Wha…?" Kyle muttered, head whirling.

"I Chicken Man. I hatched," he repeated, before diving onto a chair leg and gnawing at it like a dog. Dimitri reached out with a mechanical dreadlock and grabbed Chicken Man, with Tails and Kyle contributing by dragging him over to a cage that Rotor and Charles had dragged into place. As soon as Chicken Man was shut in, Rotor locked the door rapidly. Chicken Man contented himself with gnawing on the bars as Eggman glared at Tails.

"Was it you? Did you clone me, and make this, this, this OAF?"

"Why would I do something like that? I mean, isn't one Eggman enough?" Tails countered. The two of them appeared to be ready to fight when Kyle piped up.

"We have a visitor." Indeed, there stood a black two-tailed fox with green fur on his chest and tails. He looked around, taking in the chaos around him.

"Um, you wouldn't have seen a guy with a rubber glove on his head and an obnoxious grin, would you?" he asked.

"Yeah, we have him. Who are you?" Tails asked. The fox smiled.

"The name's Ronan. I'm from an alternate reality to you guys." Ronan walked in, and looked into the cryogenetic tube where Will was sealed.

"It appears that you have a frozen echidna in your lab," he said dryly. Tails faced him.

"He's really sick. Now, if you could remove the delusional Eggman from my laboratory, we can proceed in finding a cure for him." Ronan looked at the motionless body of Will, then back at Tails.

"What's wrong with him? Has to be bad, because he's frozen. What symptoms does he have?" he pressured. Tails sighed, unwilling to bring an unknown quantity into the mix, but Ronan was already analyzing the data on Kyle's computer screen.

"Hmmm. Energy levels corrupted, disease feeding off the corrupted energy, theorized two-stage condition." Ronan turned to talk to everyone there. "I know this disease. It was a plague on my world for ages. We call it Power Sickness. Normally, people get sick but do not die due to small levels of energy in their veins. However, with people with irrationally high power levels, like the echidna in the tube there, the disease wouldn't burn out, but keep attacking him until he died. If someone made it into a poison, then he has a problem."

"Is there a cure?" Dimitri asked, watching as Ronan smoothed out the fur on his muzzle.

"Yes, there is. However, it is risky and very dangerous. Basically, eight Inhibitor 'gates' have to be implanted directly onto his spine. After that, he needs to be woken gradually, then over time, taught how to open the gates to tap into more and more power."

"You're telling me that these gates block off the flow of Chaos Energy into his body that he can use?" Kyle yelled. Ronan looked at the young two-tailed fox with intrigue.

"Yes. If he could access all that energy, he would burn out rapidly. Very rapidly. The disease is actually a three-stage infection. You guys got one and two right, but stage three is an infection of the mind. Luckily, from the signs left in your results, it hasn't reached that."

"What do you want to do all this, if you are going to do that?" Tails asked suspiciously. Ronan raised his hands almost as if in self-defense.

"Access to the lab with help to build the gates, then access to an operating theater to install them. That's it. No money, no fame, nothing." Tails still looked unconvinced.

"I'll help build the gates," Kyle put in.

"As will I," Uncle Chuck added. Ronan smiled.

"What about the rest of you?"

"I'll help install them." Dimitri waved a mechanical dreadlock at Will's tube. "I know echidna physiology." Tails saw where he was outmatched. Theatrically, he threw his hands into the air.

"Oh, fine. I'll help install them, and pull strings at the hospital to get an operating theater. Ronan, begin immediately. You can use this lab." Eggman had been taking notes all through Ronan's lecture, scratching his head for a while before seeing how brilliant it was.

"Amazing! Have you ever though about working for the Eggman Empire?" Ronan laughed.

"All the money in my world couldn't make me decide to, Ivo."


	9. Ronan's Gambit

**Chapter Eight: Ronan's Gambit**

Kyle, Charles and Ronan sat in Tails' lab, building the Inhibitor Gates.

"Ronan, explain to me this: how did you end up here?" Uncle Chuck asked. Ronan laughed.

"Well, I run a weapons and prototype laboratory, called Hammerforge Industries. We are very successful, and sell weapons and equipment to people in other dimensions and zones. Most recently, we were working on Project Vorstec, a multi-world teleportation system. We use Chicken Man for all tests, because he's indestructible and too stupid to feel pain. We weren't expecting Project Vorstec to work, but Chicken Man disappeared, so I followed him, first in a bio-suit than like I am now."

"You… You're a …" Kyle spluttered. Ronan just nodded.

"Yes. I'm a weapons designer. However, these Inhibitor Gates were designed by me. Hammerforge Industries makes everything. I prefer being called a scientist."

"You're a lifesaver, sir." Charles stroked the thick white moustache that adorned his muzzle. Kyle nodded agreement. Both were taken aback as Ronan shook his head.

"Actually, these gates are the lifesavers. All I'm doing is showing you the way to make 'em. I don't need anything for this, but to use the Star Posts to send myself and Chicken Man back to my world."

"I assure you, Ronan, that you will be praised, and could probably expect not payment but a position here as well, not to mention a second lab…"

"And more help!" Kyle piped in. Ronan grinned.

"Aw, well, thanks guys. We're halfway done," he said, pointing towards the four inhibitor gates spread around on the bench top, "Why don't we have a bite to eat, then get back to work."

"Good idea, Ronan." Charles got up and walked over to the bar fridge Tails had had moved into place. Kyle had already put everything down and grabbed a packet of chips and a bottle of soft drink, then flopped back into his seat, stuffing his face. Charles pulled out a sandwich, as well as a bottle of water. He joined Kyle in eating, although he noticed Ronan didn't stop working on the Inhibitor Gate he was working on, the unique final gate. Ronan looked up, still screwing in the small shard he had made with fragments of a Chaos Emerald and a Super Emerald, as well as a small Sol Emerald piece Tails gave him. Suddenly, Shadow's 4-year-old son Cade raced in, closely followed by his dad.

"We have a problem: an army is marching down on us. You guys better get ready, because in a day or two we're going to be overrun, unless we think of some strategy to beat them," Shadow muttered, scooping Cade up into his arms. Instantly, Ronan was out of his seat, demanding to see what kind of forces they had, and how big an army was coming. Shadow raised his hands and snapped his fingers once, creating a warp portal.

"Why don't you join me in the Monolith's tactical control room and find out?"

Ronan was unhappy to see just what sort of forces he had: mostly hedgehogs, with a handful of others.

"It's not that I don't like hedgehogs, I just find them…annoying. Seriously, the main set of forces I have here that I value is the Chaotix. Sorry, Shadow, but I don't think we have enough people, even including you and Sonic, to beat that army."

"It's all about tactics. That army is mostly Dark Legionnaires and Dark Acolytes, with a fair few badniks and some unknowns. Therefore, if you focus on clearing out an area, we might be able to force them back," Rouge muttered, having arrived from behind Ronan. He didn't look surprised, still completely focused on the screens.

"I take it Dark Legionnaires are ranged, while Acolytes are melee? The numbers are consistent so that the Acolytes will destroy anyone who warps into the midst of their army. The badniks and unknowns are also spread out throughout. Here's how I'd set up the defenses." Ronan pressed a series of buttons on a panel, showing a tactical arrangement where the Chaotix, with Shadow and Sonic with them, in the center, with Rouge and Tails covering either side with firearms from the walls. Cream and Kyle would support from above with bombing runs, while Amy and a lot of the kids hung back as secondary reinforcements to reinforce Rouge and Tails if they got overrun.

"Don't forget us!" a very familiar voice piped up. This time, Ronan turned to find a small group of people led by BloodSonic.

"We've got the flanks. Vic and I'll lead left, Comet and Joineth will hold right. OK?"

"Fine." Ronan wasn't in the mood for witty retorts, instead spinning and facing the screen again.

"We might be able to do this, if we can smoke them out."

"Smoke them out? This isn't beetles in a cigarette factory, Ronan. This is an army. Which reminds me, am I allowed to smoke in here?"

"No. Besides, I mean those trees. Blood, does any of your friends control fire?"

"Yeah, I do, and there are plenty more around the place," Comet said, stepping towards Ronan. "Why?"

"I've got a plan. Gather them together, then meet me here. I will wait." Ronan walked over to a table, then opened walked out for five seconds, returning with a chessboard. Rouge watched, intrigued, as Blood and the others left, closely followed by Shadow, with a few leaves of a random plant, and some paper. Ronan set up the pieces, continuously leaving and coming back with more and more pieces from different games.

Soon, Comet arrived with a large array of allies. Shadow had returned as well, although his pupils had shrunk a lot from his smoke. Rouge turned to him.

"What kind of plant did you use?" she asked. Shadow shrugged.

"I dunno. I found it on the side of the road near our house." Ronan cleared his throat, bringing everyone's attention to his chessboard.

"I've arrayed out my plans. Here's the enemy army," he said, gesturing to the large clump of black chess pieces and checkers, "Here's the Chaotix." he pointed to the pack of white chess pieces, "And here's the two side flanking forces." He pointed at two groups of mixed pieces from at least seven different board games.

"Ok, so where do we come in?" Comet pressed. Ronan raised his hands in a calming gesture.

"Wait for me to finish, I think," Ronan pulled out a camera, and took a photo of the board from above, then input it into the computer, creating a digital image of the array.

"They are probably going to keep pushing towards us, ignoring the forest that's between us and them." The digital image had a red arrow appear between the black army and the small white force, ignoring a green band between them.

"Then, they would probably engage and easily outnumber all our forces, including reinforcements and flank assaulters." Ronan finished, waiting for the obvious questions to start popping up. He wasn't disappointed.

"That doesn't explain us being here!" Comet exploded. Everybody except Shadow nodded. Shadow just shivered, than grabbed his head.

"I don't think that plant was good for me…" he groaned. Rouge rolled her eyes, as everyone watched Shadow stagger out.

"After that interruption, I shall answer," Ronan started, "When I saw the forest, I though fire. If we could light the fire, than get the Chaotix to fan the flames, then we could have a wall of fire between them and us, slowing them down and giving us time to prepare properly, as well as get Will's surgery started."

"What!" Rouge yelled, "Start the surgery? But you need Tails for that, and…and…"

"And you doubt my idea. Well, the second sharpshooter has made himself known. He is 15, and he has a broken leg, so he cannot enter the main fray, but he could serve as a sniper." Rouge started getting that sinking feeling, because she realized just whom the fifteen-year-old sniper was.

"Shade," she whispered.

"What?" asked Dawn, who had just joined them, due to her Solar Sun Beams, was one of the fire starters.

"Shade's the other sniper. Why Shade?"

"He volunteered. Besides, it lets him do something," Ronan replied. Shadow returned, with an icepack on his head, but he still heard that.

"Rouge, honey, we have to get ready. Shade's a great hand with weapons, like me. He's a crack shot, and might give you some competition, not to mention

he'd be safer sniping than in the fray. What do you say?"

"Oh, fine. What else is in your plan, Ronan?" She asked, drained. He lifted up a rifle, which she didn't recognize.

"This is a Hammerforge Industries multi-ammunition rifle. It can shoot any kind of ammunition, from sniper rounds to rifle rockets. I have two here, so you take one to Shade, and try it out yourself," Ronan said, handing her two bags of ammunition. Rouge took it and left, unsure.

"Comet, people, I want you to position yourselves in the edges of the forest, ready to fire when you see a golden rocket overhead, which Rouge will fire. Got it?"

"Rodger, GUN command. Over," Shadow muttered. Dawn hit the back of his head.

"We got it, Ronan. Shadow's still getting off his 'trip', so don't expect

something smart from him for the next half-hour at least."

"Gottit." Ronan turned to face Comet and his group. "And your response is…"

"Defiantly. You got us for the long haul, Ronan. No worries."

"Good. Now, get ready, because we have a day to get everyone ready." Comet and the others left. Ronan turned, and faced the chessboard.

"Was I right not to tell them…?" he murmured. Rouge walked back in, followed by Shade in a wheelchair.

"Ronan, we had a couple of questions for you," Rouge said. Ronan motioned for them to continue, turning to face them.

"Well, I want to know where you got these! They look identical to a PT-80 sniper rifle used by GUN," Shade asked, holding one of the rifles Ronan had given Rouge. Ronan grinned.

"PT-80, you say? Well, I recall selling GUN a supply of Hammerforge PT-80 snipers, which are the basic version of the multi-ammunition rifle you hold. Turns out that they had some of those PT-80s here in the Monolith, which Tails let me work on last night in case of this happening." Shade appeared content with that answer, and wheeled himself out of there. Rouge stayed behind.

"You have a question too," Ronan pointed out. Rouge frowned.

"Why should we trust you?" she asked. Ronan didn't look surprised.

"I was expecting this question. I suppose you have no choice."

"What do you mean, no choice?"

"I'm saving that echidna boy's life, forming tactics to save this entire city, and you think I can help it? I can't. All the scientists trust me, why don't you?"

"Let's say a lot of us can't trust someone who can't fight." Ronan frowned, then pointed at Rouge's rifle.

"A shootout then. The training rooms, you with that, me with any weapon I like from the armories, five minutes. OK?"

"Fine." Rouge turned around, then left. Ronan followed, then turned to go straight into the armories. He flicked through all the crates of weapons, ignoring most of the stuff, including the PT-80s, until his hands closed around a small blue ball. He pulled it out, then released it. It hovered there, with a flaming-style glow surrounding it. Ronan laughed, then grabbed it again, before walking out to the training rooms. Shadow, Shade and Blood were already there, with Knuckles and the Chaotix arriving at the same time as Ronan. Rouge was already positioned towards the targets, testing the rifle for what it could do. Ronan just jumped and flew down, so he was pointing the same way.

"What'cha got?" Rouge asked. Ronan just laughed, then opened his hand. The small orb floated up and out, before it sat next to his ear.

"A Will'o'Wisp," he said. Rouge frowned.

"Looks like some kind of grenade." Ronan just pointed towards the targets.

"Your shot." Rouge lined up, then fired six times rapidly, scoring a large amount of hits, no bull's-eyes, but still a very good display. Ronan didn't even blink.

"Attack," he stated. Instantly, the Will'o'Wisp turned red and raced into the target, slamming itself into the bull's-eye point, before flying back. Ronan then pulled at his gloves, revealing four more. They all turned red and tore the target to shreds. Everyone froze. Rouge's jaw dropped so it was almost lying on her boobs.

"How... how did..." she stammered. Ronan gave a dark grin.

"Nobody banned robots. The Will'o Wisps are my bodyguards, as you just saw. I can also fight, but I don't like to."

"So, you cheated," Rouge said. Ronan didn't even think with his response.

"There is no cheating in war. I would know, being a weapons dealer. When a new deal comes, you have to trust it, or hope that they can be trusted. In this case, you just have to trust me, and I will prove that I am trustworthy. Do I have your trust, even for just now?"

"Anyone with a mind for tactics like that defiantly has my trust!" she shouted. Ronan laughed.

"Let's prepare then, because we have a day or two before we get hit with a large army." There was no need to say that twice.


	10. Military Surprises

**Chapter Nine: Military Surprises**

Rouge positioned herself into the sniper's point at the top of the walls set up for her. She could see Shade being helped into position by Bianca and Maria, his little sisters. She gave a faint smile, then turned to the task at hand: prepping her multi-ammunition rifle for combat. Loading in a sniper round, she sat, ready to fire. She saw faint movements as Comet's advance squads set out, ready to light the powder keg of a forest in front of her. Suddenly, there was a voice in her ear.

"The surgery is starting, and the recon bots are back. The enemy is 15 minutes away. I repeat, one-five minutes away. I am handing over to battlefield command." Ronan sounded like he was made for this sort of announcing, or at least good at it. Rouge watched as Shadow positioned himself near the head of the Chaotix strike group, next to Knuckles and Sonic. She found herself drawn to the point where the enemy was going to be coming from. Not surprisingly, she couldn't see anything out of the ordinary, because these guys were professionals. Quickly, she checked her watch. Barely two minutes had passed. Rouge shook her head as Cream flew past to check the progress of the enemy. Suddenly, a very familiar voice was in her ear.

"The enemy is in range sooner than expected. Burn teams, you are cleared to start the blaze," Sally ordered, and Rouge could see a young squirrel muscle her way into the pack of Chaotix. As Rouge watched, a massive plume of fire covered her view. She smiled. That was the enemy slowed down for a few hours as the pyrokinetics did what they did best.

Jacob instantly flew into damage control, trying to lessen the damage that his people took. Quickly, it was clear to him that there was pyrokinetics keeping the flaming barrier up within that area.

"I need some elite soldiers to join me in an attack on the pyrokinetic soldiers that are keeping this barrier up!" he roared.

"That won't be necessary." Jacob's head arched around to see Enna, his girlfriend and distant member of the Knuckles clan beside him.

"Oh, it's just you, Enna. Look, it's easier that I have soldiers take out these pyrokinetics before they decimate our people. Face it, we're in trouble."

"I am a pyrokinetic, and I know how to throw barriers like this up, and out of the way. Get those elite soldiers to form up in two lines, then have them follow me."

"What are you going to do?" Jacob asked, shocked by Enna's darkness.

"I'm gonna make a clear path for the army. Get everyone ready to pass through, then everyone who can fly to do so. Is that clear?"

"Yes'm." Jacob knew when Enna was like this; there was no questioning her. Enna turned and walked straight over to the fire, sticking a hand into it on each side of her body, before parting her hands. The entire wall of fire separated, then held there as she started walking through, the gap widening as she walked. Quickly, the soldiers, the Dark Acolytes in particular, raced through the gap, staying behind Enna as she walked.

Ronan watched as Dimitri placed the anesthetic mask over Will's mouth: he was going to be defrosted for the procedure, and would need all the pain relief he could get while the surgery was underway, as well as afterwards. Tails pulled out the set of surgical tools, while Ronan checked the tactical array on the Monolith's monitors, before pulling out the Inhibitor Gates. With one hand, he picked up the laser scalpel beside him and made the first cut towards the spine.

Knuckles saw the passage open, and was instantly worried. What kind of fire wielder can move fire like that? he thought. That question was answered as Enna walked out, making a sudden hand motion that launched a whip of flames out of the inferno to send one of Blood's allies flying. Instantly, Vector had her, but he was send flying by a single fearsome punch. Rapidly, Dark Legionnaires and Dark Acolytes raced in, with Jacob himself amongst them. Knuckles found himself punching back a trio of Acolytes at once, then having to block a stab from a spear as Jacob raced in to attack. Instantly, Shadow knocked Jacob away with a single Chaos Spear, then ducked under a returned shot. Jacob then closed his eyes, still not having learned his lesson, powering up to Super. The battle was hopeless. Dark Legionnaires were shooting wildly at anyone not in their robes, including the badniks amongst them. Kyle flew overhead, using beams of Chaos Energy from his hands to send soldiers into the inferno, which a flying badniks stopped, then fought back with rockets. Rouge and Shade fired away, as reinforcements for both sides raced forwards. Then Shadow removed his inhibitor rings, being surrounded in a flaming aura, before racing in and attacking Jacob, sending him flying. Jacob dropped his spear, and raced back in, as the fight raged around them.

Ronan finished implanting the second gate into Will when the battlefield array beeped. Quickly, he let Dimitri and Tails get ready as he spun to see the tactical array showing disarray. He swore under his breath. Things were not going well out there.

Knuckles swung again and again. Even the arrival of the firestarters wasn't good, because everything they threw at the Dark Legionnaires, Enna threw back. Knuckles leapt, gliding to smash into a flying badnik, only to be struck by a flying energy-coated arrow from a Dark Archer. A green and gold blur raced past, slicing down soldiers as they got up, as Rouge and Shade's guns kept up the fire on any soldiers dumb enough to stay still. A ball of energy from a Dark Legionnaire's rifle struck the blur, revealing Manic with his sword, while another one pulled out a Chaos Siphon and started draining Shadow. Shadow screamed as the aura of energy cloaking his body was drained away, but an expert shot from Shade left the Siphon wielder unable to hold a pen, let alone a gun, cleanly knocking off three fingers. Shadow lashed out against Jacob with a flashing blast, which constantly changed colour, but Enna blocked it with a blast of black fire. Knuckles created an energy shield, which allowed him to be pushed backwards rather than be injured by a badnik's guns, ending up with his back to Sonic.

"Here's hoping Ronan has this covered," he yelled

"I know!" Sonic yelled back, "It's getting hot here!"

Dimitri's slender dreadlock-tentacles tenderly placed the sixth gate within Will's spine, taking care not to come into contact with the energy fields being emitted by Will's body. Ronan and Tails were examining the other gates in front of the tactical array.

"Oh, crud. We are in trouble." Ronan muttered, lifting up the cuff of his glove to reveal a small pack of Will'o Wisps. "Reinforce the allied faction within that fight, they need the support," he commanded, the Will'o Wisps turning red, signaling attack mode, before flying off. Ronan turned to the others.

"We need to get the other gate into him ASAP, because this fight is going down the toilet."

"Ronan, how will getting the gates in speed any of this up?" Dimitri asked.

"That's my secret, but it needs to be done pronto." Ronan's hands reached onto the table of supplies, withdrawing a single orb. At everyone's confusion, he then flew up to place the orb within the lights, pointing at Will. He connected two cables to the back of it, before talking into the radio.

"Rouge, Shade, on my signal, plug the tubes I gave you into your rifles."

"Rouge, Shade, on my signal, plug the tubes I gave you into your rifles." Ronan's voice came out clearly in Shade's helmet speakers.

"Copy that, Command." Rouge responded, jarring Shade's nerves slightly.

"I hear you, Commander." Shade called, grabbing the ultra-thin tube and examining it. There was nothing spectacular about it, just appearing to be an ordinary phone line casing. However, Shade didn't trust his instincts this time. He slowly looked it over, but there was nothing special he could see about this tube.

Knuckles, Sonic and Blood fought as a team, Blood replacing Tails as one of Knuckles living punching gloves. Both hedgehogs had their spines outstretched, allowing the punches thrown to connect from a further distance. He could see Vicious the Dark and Comet lashing out in all directions, while Sally's daughter Amy, better known as Swift, created a tornado to send people flying. ''Nowhere near enough firepower. Nowhere enough help. Great'', he thought sarcastically, throwing Sonic straight into a tight pack of soldiers, sending them flying like tenpins. Shadow dashed past, throwing Jacob and Enna backwards towards a set of trees. Knuckles threw Blood straight at Vicious, who kicked him like a soccer ball, making him bounce like a pinball from tree to tree, knocking down anyone who got in his way. Suddenly, a swarm of red orbs came from the Monolith. They charged in head-first, striking all the Dark Legion soldiers they got a lock on at over one hundred kilometers an hour, brutally injuring those they hit in the limbs and killing those they hit in the head. However, even their arrival could not sway the balance of power from Jacob's hands.

Dimitri and Tails placed the vital Eighth Inhibitor Gate into Will's spine, avoiding burning themselves on the massive amount of Chaos Energy being emitted from Will's body. Ronan lifted his glove to flick a switch on the control band under the cuff of the glove, activating the Chaos Siphon he had positioned within the lights. Instantly, an orange beam leapt from the pod onto Will, absorbing all of the red-gold energy coating his body. Instantly, Ronan had a radio in his hand.

"Rouge! Shade! Plug those tubes in NOW!" he bellowed.

"Rouge! Shade! Plug those tubes in NOW!" Ronan's bellowing jolted Shade into action, plugging the tube into the special port at the rear of the gun stock before checking what it said about available ammunition. The information on his helmet HUD was marked infinite. He fired once into the crowd, with a red-gold energy beam emerging, spinning rapidly for maximum armor-piercing punch. It struck a Dark Legionnaire with a rocket launcher straight in the chest, sending him straight through the trunk of a tree. He saw another bolt lance out and strike an enemy sniper trying to get a clear shot at him. Suddenly, they all heard a massive shout all over the battlefield.

"RETREAT!" Jacob roared, with all able-bodied soldiers running behind him and Enna. There was a second roar from the defenders, cheered by the sudden retreat. Sonic and Knuckles pulled on the headsets offered to them by Vector.

"Yo, Ronan, Sal, we've got a lot of prisoners here, what are we going to do with them?" Sonic asked. Sally's response was quick.

"Take them prisoner for interrogation, rehabilitation and eventual release back into society," she commanded. A similar order was sent all the way from Westopolis for Shadow, Shade and Rouge. The three of them gathered up a small set of officers and soldiers to be marched down to Westopolis for GUN's investigation. Another third of the people were gathered up by the Chaotix for Sally. However, Ronan had a different command for the Will O' Wisps.

"Gather a small handful of officers for questioning. Kill all the rest." Sally stood staring at Ronan as he raced into the Tactical Control Room, struggling to contain herself.

"You're a monster!" She screamed. Her other daughter Jayme tried to calm her down, but Ronan motioned for Jayme to stop.

"I'm a weapon's developer and dealer as well as a tactician, Princess. I hear that every day," he taunted as he swaggered off, leaving Sally there quivering with anger.


	11. The Awakening

**Chapter Ten: The Awakening**

Will groaned as the anesthetic wore off and his hazel eyes fluttered open. He couldn't move even his little fingers, let alone his toes, because whenever he did, he was in agony. Everything was a daze, but slowly reentered focus to see Maddy, Tails and a strange black fox standing over him.

"Will! You're awake!" Maddy squealed, the high-pitches blasting into Will's tired mind like an explosion. He groaned again, before whispering to her. "Yeah, Maddy. I'm awake. Just keep it down, please. My body is in agony."

"I take it your sickness is gone," the strange black fox stated clearly.

"I wouldn't know. I hurt worse than while I was sick. I can't draw on Chaos Energy for any sort of pain relief. It's like torture." Tails approached.

"Will, the disease was affecting your Chaos Energy reserves. We couldn't think of a cure until Ronan here," Tails gestured to the black fox, "came to our dimension to catch an experiment of his. He found you and gave us the cure."

"Which is?"

"Eight Chaos Inhibitor Gates, similar to Shadow's Inhibitor Rings. They have been implanted directly onto your spine. They are what are blocking your energy, and they probably explain the pain you are in. There is nothing we can do. I am so sorry."

Ronan spoke again. "The pain will last for a week, at least. Afterwards, you must train to get back your skill and talent with both physical and energy-based combat, but for now you must rest." Will groaned.

"Hurts to much to sleep," he moaned. Ronan pulled a small needle from a nearby set and jabbed it into Will's arm, sedating him and allowing him to sleep. He then turned to the others.

"Maddy, would you care to stay with him?"

"Defiantly! I'll do all I can to lessen the pain!" she replied. Ronan nodded and turned to Tails.

"Would you be informing the family and friends, or shall I?"

"Let us do it together, cousin." Tails grinned, and the two twin-tailed foxes walked out to where Will's family sat waiting for news.

"He's ok! He woke up five minutes ago, but he had to be sedated to relieve him of the pain he was in." Tails announced to proud cheering and applause.

"However, he must be trained to use his powers through inhibitor gates and also retrained how to fight, all starting a week from now." Knuckles stepped forward.

"May I speak to my son? It's been a two weeks that he's been on ice." Ronan examined Knuckles as if he was a trapped animal.

"I'm sorry, but we had to sedate him to get him to sleep. Not until tomorrow, I should say." Knuckles threw a punch at the cream-colored walls, leaving long scrapes in the metal coating.

"I'm sick and tired of people telling me what I can and cannot do with my son! I swear, Ronan, if I cannot speak to him tomorrow I'll…"

"You'll what?" Ronan appeared incredibly calm, considering that he had a fist the size of a dinner plate with a blade as thick as his wrist hovering mere centimeters away from his nose. Knuckles growled a predator's growl, deep-throated and husky, before making a movement to slash Ronan's muzzle. Ronan didn't even flinch as the knuckle blade never came close, but made a swish as it missed. Everyone blinked. Knuckles never missed at that range. Ronan gave a dark smile, one full of teeth that made everyone nervous.

"Let it not be said that I cannot handle myself in a fight, but normally fighting is beneath my notice. You will be able to speak to your son tomorrow. I give you my word on that." Ronan turned and left, his two black-and-green tails leaving a clean path on the grimy and worn metal floor. Shadow shook his head.

"For a second there, I could have sworn that I sensed something. Not like a teleport, and that's a bit too obvious. As if…no, that's stupid."

"What, Shadow?" Sonic asked, his hands wrapped around Knuckle's arm as he tried to restrain the furious red echidna.

"As if a time pause was coming undone. As I said, it's stupid." Julie-Su shook her head, still with her hands wrapped around Knuckles' waist.

"Explains the miss, though. Now, honey, if we let you go, will you go and beat up the fox?" Knuckles appeared to have calmed slightly, although it was slightly deceptive.

"No." Julie and Sonic both let Knuckles go, only to have him storm halfway to Ronan's bunkroom before Sonic could grab him again.

"Honey, please. What has Ronan done to you?" Julie-Su shouted. Sonic let go as Knuckles turned to face his partner.

"Nothing, except cut me out from talking to my own son! He's just so arrogant! I can't STAND him!" Julie shook her head, letting her bright pink dreadlocks swing around for a second.

"Look, honey, when Will's up to it, I want you to take him away somewhere. You can train him back up as you like, as well as follow the trail to the commander of that Dark Legion unit. I'd say take some people with you, for help. Who would you take?"

"Well, I'll take Sonic for training his reflexes and swordsmanship, Shadow to train him with the inhibitors and Chaos manipulation, Maddy to keep him company and Blood to train him in energy blasts and such. That'd do, I think." Julie shook her head again.

"What happens if his gates malfunction, or the disease comes back? Who are you going to take in case of that?"

"You have a point. I'll take Tails or Kyle for that." Julie facepalmed.

"Uh, I wasn't part of building the inhibitor gates, and Kyle wasn't part of implanting them. Only one person was part of both."

"Ronan." Knuckles made it sound like he was swearing. "It had to be Ronan, didn't it?"

"Face, it, Rad Red, you're stuck with him." Sonic piped up. Knuckles shot him a glare.

"Shut up, Sonic. Look, I'll organize everything, but don' expect me to be in a good mood if he's coming."


	12. Train and Interrogate

**Part Three**

**Chapter Eleven: Train and Interrogate**

Shadow grunted, struggling to hold four heavy bags on the angled ground, failing to look around himself. Will and Maddy had no such trouble, as Maddy helped Will down the same steep ground through the beautifully scenic forest.

"Whoa! See that flower? It's amazing!" Maddy cooed at the large orange flowers sprouting from a tree. Will smiled; gently plucking one from the tree with his free hand, then wrapped it in Maddy's long blue hair. Her smile broadened as they continued down to the area where Knuckles and Ronan stood shouting at each other.

"What's up?" Will asked, watching carefully as Knuckles gestured wildly at the trees all around them.

"Ronan's location gear can't pinpoint where we are! And I just got word of where the Dark Legion is based at the moment, so I can go have a word with Lien-Da. I swear, if this fox's useless technology ACTUALLY worked we could be outta this forest!"

"Excuse me? My technology, useless? That's what's keeping your son alive, mate, as well as many other things. Besides, it's these trees. They're emitting a weird electromagnetic resonance, and I can't get a lock on anything." Ronan yelled back. Will gave a smile that broadened when he recognized a certain clearing.

"It's the Forest of Light! I was here with Crystal before I got sick."

"Crystal." Maddy growled, and Will felt a shiver down his spine.

"Anyway… Blood fought an Egg Chopper in that clearing, and destroyed it single-handedly. There's a tonne of debris that would have to be cleared, but other than that, it's a perfect clearing for our camp. All the scanners would work, and your Chaos senses too. Something about these trees jams all forms of Chaos senses and scanners." Will said, looking at the moss-covered trees that glowed with bioluminescence, and the bright clearing ahead. Ronan and Knuckles glared at each other, than set off again. Will and Maddy heard a thump, then a series of curses. Maddy turned to see the source, but it was only Shadow falling over and landing on his face. Sonic came up from behind with Blood, and both helped Shadow up and grabbing a bag each, leaving Shadow with two. The three hedgehogs made their way into the clearing, while Ronan chased off a large flock of Flickies that sat where they wanted to set up camp.

"I hate Flickies." Ronan muttered, with Shadow nodding at the comment as he set up a tent. Knuckles closed his eyes, appearing to meditate.

"What'cha doin', Dad?" Will asked, eying off a red Flickie that appeared to be sneaking up on Ronan. Knuckles didn't even open his eyes as he responded.

"I'm getting my bearings. I know where Lien-Da's main camp is; it's just a case of getting there. Got it." Knuckles stood and pointed to the north, towards what appeared to be an extremely dense clump of mossy trees. He opened his eyes and then examined the area.

"Ok, maybe I should head AROUND that clump."

"Good idea." Will smiled, than gave his dad a hug. "Thanks for all this, Dad. I mean, you came out here to train me with someone you can't stand. It means a lot to me." Knuckles nodded, letting his dreadlocks swing.

"It's my pleasure, Will. I'm going to have to go see Lien-Da now, so I'll leave your training up to Shadow and the others. But first, here." Knuckles bent down and pulled out a glittering purple emerald from a bag. Will froze, as did all the others.

"Chaos Emerald!" Shadow yelled, diving for the precious gem. However, Knuckles hit him on the head just as he reached it.

"No, Shadow, this is for Will." Knuckles turned to face his son. "Will, son, look. With those gates in place, we don't know how well you'll be able to connect with the Master Emerald. Therefore, I feel that as your father, I should give you this. My own Chaos Emerald. It's a Mobian Emerald, not an offworld set like all of Shadow's…"

"Hey! I have a Mobian Emerald too!" Shadow yelled indignantly. Knuckles glared at him, then continued.

"Therefore, it has a tighter bond with the Master Emerald. Keep it, until you're healthy enough to tap into Chaos Energy like you could before." Ronan tore his gaze away from the gem long enough to realize just what Knuckles was doing.

"Wait, you're giving him something that useful just as a training aid?"

"That's what I said, isn't it?" Knuckles retorted, looking at the ground. He turned and gave Will a hug. "I'll be back in a couple of days. First, I have to pay a visit to Lien-Da." He dived into the ground, his long knuckles and well-toned upper-body muscles dragging him into the ground straight underneath the clump of trees. The occasionally shaking trees gave insight into his progress. After about five minutes, Shadow shook off his surprise and daze from the strike on the head enough to look at Will.

"OK, since I was left in charge, let's try out what you can do, considering that you are out of practice." Shadow shot straight forwards in a spindash, glowing green from Chaos Energy. Will was only barely able to dodge when Shadow spun around, hurling a golden Chaos Spear, which hit Will straight in the chest, knocking him to the ground. Will tried to draw himself to his feet, but even trying felt like something was crushing him. Gradually, Will drew himself within his body, finding a trio of barriers. One felt natural, a warm organic energy barricade blocking him from certain abilities passed down by his family. The next felt soft, a spongy membrane that would take energy in and out. The final one was a colder, more metallic feeling wall. Will assumed that this was an Inhibitor Gate, and struggled to open it. Will could feel the strain on his body externally, but ignored it as the gate finally yielded, giving him an energy rush. He stood, the sensation of being crushed passing off of him with ease. Sonic, Maddy and Ronan all stared at Will, while Shadow looked bored. Blood appeared to be still fixated on the Chaos Emerald. Shadow spoke first, although Will could see Maddy and Ronan both wanted to.

"You're slow. Slower than me, and I'm in my nineties now," he turned and glared at Sonic. "And no, that does not make me an old fart. Blood's over four thousand years old, and he still looks like he's in his 20s."

"Shadow, I wasn't going to comment." Sonic replied as Maddy rushed over to Will, checking his chest for wounds. She couldn't feel any under his blue fur. Shadow rolled his red eyes.

"Oh, sure. You think I hurt him. Well, guess what? I know how to limit energy in attacks too, you realize." Will stood back, making it clear that he was ok.

"I know. My reflexes aren't what they used to be. That's because I would increase them with Chaos Energy, OK? I'm still strong, at least, I think I am, but I'm slow and have slowed reflexes, plus I'm struggling to open the gates. Can you help me?" Ronan stood forward now, his gaze making Will feel like an animal in a zoo.

"You managed to open an Inhibitor Gate?" he asked, bluntly. Will nodded.

"Just one. I didn't go any deeper, because one gate was all I needed." Ronan met Will's eyes now, studying them for any signs of being bloodshot or damaged.

"That's impressive. I've seen people who are unable to open the gates for years. I'm not one of them, but I never had that disease." Ronan parted his black and green fur, revealing a set of scars where stitches had been. He slid his hands up, revealing more sets of scars.

"I have four gates. I don't use them to limit my energy, in a way, but I use them to limit my rage. If I open them, I automatically transform." Now Blood looked up from the Emerald, deciding it didn't have what he was looking for within it.

"I'd say the reflexes and speed are something your father struggled with as well. I mean, I saw him as a child. Heck, I saw Sonic's ancestors as children. Anyway, your dad couldn't keep up with his father, and could barely move fast enough to block any attacks thrown at him. He trained around the Master Emerald constantly, and I think he built up an energy reserve similar to you, but there was one more thing: he trained away from the emerald as well, and he had become much faster. I guess you just have to…"

"Train. I know." Will looked Blood in the eyes, almost losing himself in the impossible depth of the black 'whites' of his eyes, before making himself speak. "Still, some of the fastest beings on Mobius are here, so if I can't increase my reflexes here, I won't be able to anywhere." Everyone was quiet, as a bright white Flickie flew up and landed on the tent. Ronan turned and all of a sudden, the Flickie vanished. Shadow twitched again, the same as he had in the hospital. Everyone looked at Ronan, and a bright white Flickie upside-down in the bushes behind him.

"What? Let's get to work!"


	13. Reflexive Actions

**Chapter Twelve: Reflexive Actions**

Knuckles emerged from the ground to see where he was. Ahead of him was a tower, smaller than the Monolith or Eggman's citadel, but larger than most things he'd seen. He took a gamble and decided that the tower was where he would find Lien-Da. He grinned, flexing his muscular red arms. This sort of trip was super easy. He leant back, about to dive into the ground to get closer, only to feel a gun being pressed into his back.

"Move slowly, echidna. Don't give me an excuse," came the very familiar voice from the past.

"Nack, is that you?" Knuckles asked, staying completely still. He felt the gun move from the small of his back, and turned tentatively to see the purple weasel in the cowboy hat. Nack was slightly smaller than Knuckles, and would have gotten battered instantly if it wasn't for the automatic pistol he now wielded.

"Heh, upgraded for more firepower, huh Nack?" Knuckles asked tentatively, watching Nack's dark blue eyes for any signs of instability. He saw none.

"That's right, Knuckles. Keep up the tough guy banter. If Lien-Da hadn't asked me to keep an eye out for suspicious folks, you never would have been caught, and I think you know that." Knuckles frowned inwardly; hiding the fact that he knew Nack was right. Instead, he started focusing on his Chaos Energy reserves, to the somewhat warm, organic barrier positioned to stop him from using his genetic abilities. Quickly, the barrier started to collapse, with an onrush of energy following it straight to his eyes. He smiled faintly as his pupils started to split in three and the purple irises in his eyes started to turn red, expanding into the whites of his eyes. However, Nack noticed this and struck Knuckles on the back of the head with his pistol. Unconsciousness was swift.

Will stood in the center of a square, with four hedgehogs facing him all in combat positions. Will was unarmed but for a set of four weights upon his wrists and ankles, while the hedgehogs were all armed. Shadow had Will's saber, while Sonic the broadsword. Maddy had her hammer, while Blood was unarmed, but when Will though about the fact Blood was a few thousand-year-old being who had lived through many battles, that fact didn't count for much.

"Begin." Ronan ordered, and the training match was on. Sonic quickly started running around Will as fast as he could, whipping up a tornado and becoming a blur. Will just closed his eyes, allowing his reflexes to grab the source of the sound and throw him. Sonic was quickly caught by Blood as Maddy and Shadow rapidly approached. Maddy stopped short, lashing out with a whip of water at Will's arms as Shadow leapt at Will with a fiery kick. Will swung his right arm up, allowing the heavy weight to take the blow of Shadow's kick, while using his left to cut the flow of the water whip, splattering the water everywhere. Shadow tried again, using the blue-hot flames he could make his air-shoes generate straight upon Will as they coated his legs. Will grabbed Shadow's legs this time, throwing him at Blood as he faced off with Maddy. She swung her hammer low, aiming at his legs. Will jumped, the hammer impacting with the ground with a loud 'PIKO'. Maddy swung again, this time hitting Will on one of the weights, flipping him. However, her boyfriend was smarter than she thought, landing on his right hand which was buffered by the weight, knocking the mallet from her hands, then flipping himself upright, planting a single weight-enhanced kick into her already-prepared hands, sending her backwards. Blood raced in now, throwing a punch every few seconds, his fists speeding up rapidly. However, Will sped up just as fast, dodging most of the strikes and blocking those he couldn't with his weights, all the while concentrating on his gates, opening one and channeling that energy into his arms, namely into generating body heat. Shadow was the first to notice the change in shape and color of the weights, which were little more than over-glorified sandbags bandaged to Will's arms.

"Ronan, check that out. Will's doing something to the sand."

"Odd, considering that Will isn't Earth-natured, and struggles with precision manipulation of Chaos Energy. I wonder what he's planning," came the response from the twin-tailed fox, who watched keenly as Will's Chaos-enhanced reflexes sped him up to almost blurs. Not as fast as Sonic, and still slightly slower than Blood's punches, but the viewers all knew what Blood was capable of, having been seen throwing a punch every second and faster, a punch every half-second. To Will, all he could see was black blurs as Blood's black gloves flew towards him, about to strike him in the nose. Rapidly, and faster than Maddy thought possible, Will brought the sandbag he'd been transforming into the line of the punch, blocking it. There was a loud shatter, and Blood pulled his hand away to reveal a glove cut and blood leaking out from glass shards, and a near-complete lining of glass in the sandbag. Shadow and Sonic were astonished, as Maddy soaked her hands in water and placed them on the blood, using another technique Sonic hadn't seen from the years she'd spend away from him with Will. Ronan clapped.

"Well done, Will. I hadn't expected you to use that sort of tactic," approved the black and green fox, examining the green glass coating the bag. Will smiled, with sweat leaking through his fur, and bruises starting to appear from blows he'd taken but not felt from Blood's furious battering.

"I…I think I'm going to…" he started, before collapsing. Maddy raced over, but Ronan just slid forward, parting the fur around one of Will's temples, revealing a bruise just adjacent to it.

"Go ahead, Maddy, heal that head wound, if you could even call it that. I think it's also partly do to exhaustion. Echidna bodies aren't designed for hyper-fast reflexes, and this sort of training methods will put a massive strain on his body." Ronan nodded to Sonic and Shadow, who dragged Will into his tent to sleep. Blood looked at his hand, then shook his head, letting his long red and blue hair swing before speaking.

"He's getting fast. If he opened just one more gate…"

"He would have been fast enough to make every single blow you threw at him miss. I know. I hope he doesn't move to quickly through his gates though, or he'll discover that they aren't a true cure."

"Still," Blood muttered, thinking about his hand and experimentally moving it, making sure there was no glass left within it, "I wonder how Knuckles is doing…"

Knuckles found himself in a white room, lying on a very comfortable bed. He blinked, feeling pain from that, which he attributed to the partial-transformation of his eyes and the blow to the back of the head. He heard a woman start to talk in a foreign language, which took him a while to place. Suddenly, it hit him. She was talking Bes'kar, an ancient echidna language. True, many people spoke Bes'kar, including Knuckles himself, but this was different. He could have sworn the voice was Tikal's, except for the depth of the voice. While Tikal spoke with a voice that almost echoed through her ghost-like state, this voice was deeper than that. Still too high to be a male, but very few had a voice like that. Knuckles opened his eyes, ignoring the pain that flew into his head. There was a red echidna there, with a purple-tinted topknot. She was dressed in leather, and although it wasn't visible, Knuckles knew she would have a bullwhip nearby.

"Lien-Da…" he murmured. She was quiet, before speaking again.

"Yes, Knuckles, it is me. I take it Nack knocked you around a bit," she purred. Knuckles sat up, again having to ignore a massive amount of pain in his head. She faced him, muttering in Bes'kar.

"Excuse me?" Knuckles asked, "But I'm not here for a courtesy visit. I'm here to find out why you sent a legion to a mountain village near the Forest of Light, holding the local population hostage. That resulted in an alliance with Eggman, which in turn led to Metal Sonic nearly killing Will."

"Is he ok?" Lien-Da blurted, astonished.

"Yeah, he's fine now. Tell me!" Knuckles shouted, throwing himself out of the ornate bed and spinning to face her. Lien-Da couldn't keep surprise from her face, looking towards her lapel as if there was a mic on there. Knuckles grabbed that side of the lapel, crushing it. Indeed, the leather gave way, but the small microphone that was there shattered under Knuckle's intense strength.

"I…I didn't send anyone out near the Forest of Light!" she protested, with no avail. Knuckles growled, his hands grabbing Lien-Da and throwing her into a wall, where he held her, his namesakes hovering mere centimeters from her nose. Knuckles wasn't shy about hurting people for answers, Lien-Da knew.

"I said, who did you send?" Knuckles roared, and now there was no option but tell him.

"I didn't sent him, he went renegade. His name is Jacob. He took a quarter of our elites, and I know he's been recruiting people from other species, other than echidna. He was a General, and he's known not to listen to me anymore. I don't know where he's based anymore, but my son Ziber is gathering information for us." Knuckles frowned. He recalled Ziber as being slightly younger than Will, a red echidna with scars on his muzzle, remains from repairs to his nose, which Rutan, his older brother, had accidentally smashed as a child.

"Correction, mum, was." Rutan stormed in. Behind him was Ziber, then the typical honor guard, all of whom drew weapons when they saw Knuckles holding the Grand Master against the wall. Knuckles backed down, so Ziber knocked him down with a spinning kick to the head, something that looked more dance than combat. Knuckles started to force himself back up, as Lien-Da started screaming.

"Ziber, how could you! He's your uncle!"

"He was holding you up against a wall! I wasn't just going to let him hurt you!" Ziber yelled back, as Rutan knelt to help Knuckles up.

"Ziber, you know your uncle's reputation. You know what he's like. Why not listen to him. Rutan, help your uncle out. Ziber and I will discuss Jacob and his misconduct in private." Two honor guard members dragged Knuckles out of the room, then two more slammed the door shut as Rutan and the remaining two got out. Rutan helped his uncle up.

"Come on, Knuckles. You're going to have to go now."

"What, so you're mother can't help me?" Knuckles shouted, finding a Dark Acolyte start going for the axe on its belt before Rutan could stop it.

"You're right, she can't, but I can." Rutan withdrew a map and handed it to the Guardian, who was stunned.

"Ziber gave it to me. He wanted me to go defeat Jacob myself with the Dark Legion, but I think it would be better if you go, because you have more reason for it." Knuckles opened his mouth, but Rutan silenced him, handing him a small bag with food, water and the map in it.

"Go now. It would be easier if you got into the ground before Nack noticed you." Knuckles nodded, wrapping his nephew in a hug.

"Thanks, Rutan. I owe you one. Better be off now, so goodbye, and good luck with Jacob."

"No, good luck to you…" Rutan said, watching Knuckles glide out the window and dived straight into the ground, tunneling straight back towards his old tunnel, from which he could head back to the camp. Rutan watched for a little while longer, saying the words on his lips as he watched his uncle dig away.

"You're going to need it."


	14. Target Locked

**Chapter Thirteen: Target Locked**

Will woke to the sensation of someone prodding his foot with a stick. He opened his eyes sleepily, thinking he would see the red and blue of Blood's fur. What he saw instead was a mixture of red dreadlocks with purplish hair on top.

"Lara-Su!" Will yelped, surprised. His sister had been ages away, back at home. What was she doing here?

"Hey Will, how's the training going?" she asked. Will shook his head to remove all shock, before responding.

"Yeah, good sis. I'm stronger and faster than I was before."

"Hard to believe, but I bet you still couldn't beat me." Lara-Su's smile was warm and comforting as she kept the banter up. Will grabbed his jacket and sat up.

"What's up? Why did you come out here? I mean, why would you be out in the Forest of Light? It's a week's walk from home." Lara-Su motioned towards the exit of the tent.

"Come out and we'll explain."

"We?" Will walked out into the sunshine, where he instantly noticed the amount of newcomers. Maddy and Sonic were laughing with Sonia and Manic, while Shadow showed Shade the weights Will had been using in his training, complete with the holes from the glass punch. Finally, Ronan and Blood were involved in an extremely animated conversation about energy and super forms with Kyle and Tails.

"How?" was the only thing Will could think of saying. Lara-Su nodded, knowing how to read her little brother like a book.

"Dad contacted us through his link with the Master Emerald three days ago, telling us to meet him here. We Chaos Controlled as close as we could before our heads started buzzing, then walked the rest of the way." Will noted the large mound of bags, weapons and backpacks stacked up near Shadow's tent.

"So…you're going to be staying here for a while?" Will asked, studying his sister's eyes for an answer. He saw it nearly instantly.

"As long as it takes. When Dad gets here…" A fast-moving bulge in the ground came from a similar path as the one Knuckles had taken before, moving faster than anything Will had seen before. Sonic and the other elders had all seen this phenomena before though, moving back slightly.

"What is it, Dad?" Shade asked carefully, noting the nerves on his father's face.

"Just don't face him when he surfaces, Shade!" Shadow yelled back. Will and Lara-Su kept their gazes fixed upon the same point as the ground started cracking, then a red blur raced out, sending dirt and rocks flying into the air. Will couldn't turn fast enough, so his face was covered with dirt, mud and rocks. He swung a hand over his face, mopping up the mud and dirt that had coated his eyes and started laughing as he saw just who the blur had been. Knuckles stood tall atop a boulder that had followed him out of the tunnel, with everyone else either on the ground covered in mud or just standing there with rubble covering them. There was a single exception to that rule: Maddy had been able to form a wall of water between herself and the spray, so she was standing behind a wall of brown water. As everyone cleaned themselves up, they laughed and carried on, in the river and camp.

"So, Knuckles, we got your message, but why did you want all of us here?" Tails asked, his wet fur still full of dirt, giving him a more brown sheen than normal, making him look older than he was. Knuckles nodded, accepting the bowl of hot stew Maddy was offering him before answering.

"I have the co-ordinates of Jacob's current base. It's too heavily guarded for a solo entry, so I had all of you come out here to prepare and then accompany me."

"Does that include us, dad? I want a chance to make Jacob feel the pain he put me under! I'm stronger, faster and more skilled than ever, so why wouldn't I win?" Will asked, flexing his muscles and attracting a long glance from Sonia. Maddy gently hit her older sister in the back of the head, returning her gaze from Will's well-toned body, including the bald patches where Ronan and the others had implanted the inhibitor gates.

"No, Will, you're not ready. I would love to have you and Shadow and Sonic and all the others with me, but we can't afford to lessen your training. Lara-Su and Manic have offered to stay, because I need Maddy and Shadow."

"You what?" Maddy asked, confused. Shadow nodded, as if he had been expecting this.

"I need you two. Maddy, we know that one of them is a pyrokinetic, and a very powerful one at that. You're a skilled hydrokinetic, as producing that wall of water proved, so you should be able to counteract her skill with fire. Shadow…"

"Let me guess: one of the roles involves the planting of explosives, or a sniper, and you want me on that?" Shadow's eyes shone with the mention of explosions or shooting Dark Acolytes. Knuckles rubbed his forehead, before responding.

"Actually, there were rumors of heavy Eggman tech infestations. I don't want Sonic in there because he'll probably go crazy…"

"As if I would."

"So I think you'd be better. You're more level-headed in combat." Knuckles finished, striking Sonic in the back of the head to make him shut up. Will was still sitting there, his eyes reflecting his fury at not being allowed to go. A flicker of red came into his eyes, but faded into his hazel irises. He stood, turned and ran off, grabbing his swords and pack as he passed their storage point, reaching a speed that made the newcomers and Knuckles' jaws drop, before jumping and flying away. Blood stood and looked on after Will.

"I guess I'd better be going after him." The well-built ancient hedgehog muttered, turning to follow Will, only to have Knuckles and Lara-Su both stand.

"No, Blood, he's my problem." Knuckles said.

"Our problem, dad." Lara-Su corrected him. Manic, who was sitting nearest to the heap, threw Knuckles and Lara-Su three sheaths. When Knuckles withdrew the swords in his sheaths, he smiled, recognizing the blades. Lara-Su checked that the small rapier was fixed in place, before nodding to her dad. It took Knuckles slightly longer to set the belt and both swords onto himself due to his mitten-like gloves, but he was soon ready as well.

"We'll be back soon. Hopefully he's still in one piece."

Will landed roughly near a cliff. He almost swore he saw an echidna cradling a twin-tailed fox at the bottom of the cliff, but they disappeared as he looked closer. He headed slightly inland to a small clearing, where he spun, planting a powerful kick into a tree. He dived to the left, crushing a small shrub under his shoulder. He drew his saber, stabbing it halfway through the tree with ease before attempting to withdraw it. The blade wouldn't budge. He punched the tree just below the blade with bone-shattering strength, but it did nothing. Will stood back, before using those newly charged reflexes to throw a insanely-fast set of punches into the tree, snapping the thick tree half-way through. As he did so, he heard a gentle tap as Lara-Su landed, followed by a loud thud as his dad emerged from the ground. Will returned his saber to its sheath, not bothering to watch his father and sister.

"Will, come back. I decided that you weren't ready to face Jacob because you're still getting your strength back." Knuckles said, using that same calm voice he had before trying to hit Ronan. Will didn't fall for it though, responding in a very similar voice.

"Dad, you know I want to be the one to face him, and if it means you have to prove why I can't face him by fighting me, then so be it." Will turned to face them at that point, taking off his jacket and revealing a fighter's build, very similar to his fathers. Knuckles sighed, facing his son.

"I wish I didn't have to do this, but you asked to be schooled, so I'm going to school you well." Knuckles taunted. Will remained quiet, withdrawing into the Chaos Force, something Shadow had been showing him recently.

"Uh, Dad, he looks like he's planning something…" Lara-Su commented, but Knuckles wasn't listening, instead aiming to grab his son and throw him. Will stayed completely still, almost as if he was waiting for Knuckles to be in grabbing range. Knuckles dived, rocketing for Will. He almost felt guilty for using an attack like this on his son, but that wasn't going to stop him. And then Will moved. To Lara-Su, it was amazing. One second, he was about to be grabbed by his father. The very next second, he was behind Knuckles, with his own hand wrapped around Knuckle's ankle, throwing his father over his shoulder like he weighed nothing. Knuckles landed lightly, with a smile on his face, as Will opened his eyes.

"I have to admit, Blood, Shadow and Sonic did a great job with your speed and reflexes. Still, you lack a certain part of the full set."

"Oh, and what's that, Dad?" Will returned, still frowning.

"Pure strength." At that, Knuckles dived into the ground, throwing up dirt and rocks. Will looked around, confused. He knew of times where his dad would use this tactic, but he didn't know how Knuckles would use it. Suddenly, Knuckles emerged, an arms length away from Will, and the two lost all fancy control, going down into wrestling, trying to throw the other one off. The two of them were perfectly matched, Knuckles being broader and stronger than his son, but Will being younger and slightly faster. Lara-Su watched, but she realized just what could happen, considering that either of them could rip the other one open with their knuckle blade. There was only one thing for it.

"CHAOS CONTROL!" she screamed, forming two orbs of Chaos Energy around both of the brawling echidnas, forcing them away from each other. She watched both of them for specific signs that they would go after each other or her when released, but neither gave her that sign. Knuckles looked tense but proud, while Will just shattered the Chaos Energy around himself, sitting in the dirt like a little kid. She released Knuckles, who landed almost cat-like, walking over to Will.

"Do you see what I mean, Will? You're strong, fast and have amazing reflexes, but to fight Jacob, you're going to need more." Knuckles said, wrapping an arm around his son. Both had minimal injuries, and Lara-Su had a sneaking suspicion that both had lessened the impact of their blows with Chaos Energy.

"You're right, but let me say that Jacob fights dirty. He's probably set up some traps and such, and you'd be foolish to think that this base wouldn't be set up to deal with an enemy such as yourself. You're going to need more energy than what he'd expect to beat him…" Will trailed off as Knuckles raised his hand.

"You'd be surprised what Tails brought, but yeah." Lara-Su walked over, giving her brother and father a hug each.

"Well, you worked that problem out, so let's head back."

"Right." Before either of the kids could blink, Knuckles was in the ground again. Will grinned, showing his teeth to his older sister.

"Probably hungry for more of Maddy's cooking. I know I am." Will and Lara both laughed at that, running and taking off simultaneously. As they arrived at the camp, Knuckles was sitting down to a bowl of stew. Maddy walked over and wrapped Will in a hug, as his arms snaked around her.

"Good luck, Maddy. You'll beat her, I assure you." Will whispered, his muzzle close to her ear, deep in her blue fur. She pulled away, and Knuckles' team all waved goodbye as they stood, Shadow still holding his small bottle of Col'nesian alcohol Ronan had given him. They all left in their own ways, Knuckles digging, Maddy, Shadow, Sonia and Shade running, and Tails and Kyle flying.

"Well, now there's more for us to eat!" Blood cheered, filling his bowl again.


	15. The True Power of Chaos

**Chapter Fourteen: The True Power of Chaos**

Sonic watched as Will, Lara-Su and Blood faced off, all trying to outsmart the others. Will tried a feint, but Blood knocked Will's hand out of the way, grabbing the last marshmallow straight from the fire.

"Ow, that's hot!" Blood whined, throwing the marshmallow into the air to catch it, only for Lara-Su to eat it. "Heey, I was going to eat that!"

"Suckers, mine now!" Lara-Su bragged. Sonic rolled his eyes, then walked into the group.

"Training time, Will. Ready for this lesson?"

"Which is? I've got my reflexes to just below Tails' top speed, something my dad couldn't do. I'm running slightly faster than he was, and I've easily matched Shadow and Blood for strength, and they rival my dad. I can draw with or defeat you and Manic in swordsmanship, open the first two gates, and use any of the Chaos and Elemental techniques Shadow and Blood could show me, including the Lightning Blade and techniques I used in the past. What now?" To Will's surprise, it was Ronan that answered.

"Transformation 101: Control of Chaos Energy and Elemental Energy to form and sustain a Super-level or higher form."

"Sweet! Where do I sign up?"

Knuckles led his small army into a clearing not far from Jacob's base. He scratched his head. He hadn't expected an old Suppression Squad base from the last time Scourge had invaded to be their foothold, but obviously Jacob knew what he was doing. Shade sat in a tree, watching the base through thermal-sighted binoculars. They knew Jacob would be aware of their presence, and made no obvious effort to mask their location. Like the nights before, Shadow made himself, Tails and Knuckles mugs of coffee, using a mixture Col'nesian alcohol in there to keep them wide awake, and honey for flavor. Knuckles found the mixture slightly unusual, but Shadow and Tails happily knocked back a few mugs each. Kyle opened up one of the packs, throwing Knuckles a small satchel, which contained a denim jacket which reminded Knuckles of Wills, and a small but powerful set of emeralds: seven Super Emeralds. These weren't the Mobian Super Emeralds, which were very closely linked to the Master Emerald and so scattered throughout Mobius, but were still very powerful. Shadow and Shade prepared, grabbing their bags of explosives, while Tails and Kyle prepared all the memory-copying they had to collect all the information on the computers. If it came down to it, either father-son team could complete the mission with only one member, but at the moment that need wasn't seen. Quickly, the teams ran in. Knuckles, Maddy and Sonia stuck together, with Knuckles splitting off to follow Jacob's energy signature, which he recalled. Maddy and Sonia entered the main open area to find a battle had already begun. Enna was locked in combat with a very similar looking echidna. Both were using massive fiery blasts, Enna's black and the newcomer's blue. Maddy noticed that there was a lot of water in a pair of trenches, and a couple of tanks.

"Sonia, stay here. You aren't an elemental fighter. In fact, watch the entrance. If anyone tries to get in…"

"Cover your back. Sure, sis." Sonia gave her younger sister a hug, which surprised Maddy. "Good luck."

"You too." Maddy turned and ran into the battle.

Knuckles found the Dark Legion members saluting him as he stormed down into Jacob's throne room. As he entered, pulling on the black denim jacket he'd been given, he took note of the many features that could pose tactical difficulties: low light, which would make his Sharingans strain to see. A big throne, in which could be any manner of hidden weaponry. A number of secluded corners could have snipers positioned in them. It was a tactical nightmare. It had the odds in Jacob's favor. Knuckles grinned. Time to even those odds. It was then that Jacob chose to speak, and Knuckles noticed the dark figure stand.

"Well, Will. It's the final fight for you. I hope you make it a good one, considering we had all thought you dead."

"Oh, believe me, Jacob. Will would have loved to fight you now, but he gave that right to me. You need better lighting in here." Jacob stood, throwing off his robes to reveal a black uniform which Knuckles could have sworn was Lien-Da's leather clothes. Attacked to his belt was a wide array of weapons, including a very angry-looking katana. He discarded all of the weapons but that katana, then turned to face Knuckles.

"Ah, the father of the wounded. How appropriate. I won't use a weapon against you, because I want to beat you at your specialty, an old-school beating." Jacob added to his words, casting the katana backwards next to his throne, before closing his eyes.

"Done the math yet, Guardian? The fact that I went Super in the fight against your son? The fact that this was a Suppression Squad base, with a throne?" Jacob leapt, his pure physical strength carrying him back onto his throne, where the throne and his body both started to glow.

"Will warned me you'd fight dirty. You've taken a leaf from Scourge's book, haven't you?" Knuckles challenged, focused on reaching out, to touch the minds of each of the others. He didn't often get the chance to wale on a super form, and so he wanted that chance to last. Jacob faced him, his eyes turning to the red with deeply ragged pupils that Will had seen in their fight. Jacob controlled the transformation, letting his fur change to gold as he stood there, up his left arm, then down his right, before filling his head and completing his transformation.

"Now, Knuckles, Guardian of the Master Emerald, let us dance!" the super-formed Echidna taunted, as Knuckles formed glowing green flames around his fists. This was going to be fun.

Will stood before Sonic, having given his jacket to Manic. The others watched as Will withdrew within his own core, opening the first two gates with ease. Again, he felt a metallic barrier between him and the Chaos Energy in his blood. He forced at it, feeling it flex and twist with his energy tendrils. Finally, it yielded, and he felt an onrush of energy. He listened to Sonic and Ronan now, still with his eyes shut.

"Don't control it, Will! Let it flow through you, channeling its power into you! You've got it!" Sonic yelled. Indeed, in his mind, Will could feel different. He knew he wasn't on the ground any more, but floating. However, something felt…different. There was no sensation of warmth, but instead a tingling and the sensation of his fur being on end. Now, he opened his eyes and instantly frowned. He had lightened in color, now more of a baby blue to his Blazing form's orange. His streaks had washed out as well, now gray instead of red.

"What the heck is this?" Will asked angrily. The others just looked at each other, none of them ever having seen his Blazing form.

"It's your super form, Will." Sonic tried to reason with the super powered echidna. "Super forms are near invincible, faster, harder hitting and allow you to fly." However, as Sonic said that, Will faced him, his now red eyes burning into Sonic.

"No, this is crap. This isn't my super form, it's…different. Normally, I would be orange, with yellow eyes and red

streaks, not like this!"

"Ah, I get it." Now it was Ronan's turn to talk. "You have a Blazing form, or a Burning form. One uses a mixture of Chaos energy and Fire Elemental Energy, the other uses Sol Energy. Like your father, a standard Super form turns you lighter. In my world, your super form would probably have turned you purple, as your father's equivalent turns yellow."

"I don't care about that, I'm going to see what kind of Chaos attacks this thing has, then powering higher." Will raised his hand, and everyone awaited the Chaos Flare to leave his fingers, but it never came. Instead, a ball of orange flames leapt from his fingers, leaving a shrub smoldering.

"That's it? A Chaos Incinerator? That does nothing!" Will fumed, withdrawing again.

Knuckles raced in close, bringing a fist down into Jacob's face, but Jacob took it lightly, retaliating with a lightning-fast karate chop at Knuckles' throat. Knuckles was tiring, and through he tried to dodge, the blow took him straight in the chest. It was agony, but he didn't care. Instead, he tried a side step, to dodge around Jacob. That attempt was doomed to failure, with Jacob stepping to the same side, using a combination of a low kick and high jab to make Knuckles stop. Instead, Knuckles coated his hands and feet in the green Chaos flames, and then let his body take control. He felt himself reach his physical limits, but every hit was at his maximum. Suddenly, he felt himself go flying backwards. Jacob had thrown him at one of the walls! Now Knuckles grabbed the pouch, removing all of the Super Emeralds, which shone with his touch. They formed up around him and started to glow, which instantly Jacob noticed. Quick as a flash, Knuckles saw Jacob rocketing towards him, running like mad, but he could never be fast enough. The emeralds all shone brighter, then Knuckles felt the familiar onrush of energy, beyond that of his super form. Now he was going to have fun.

The three girls locked in mortal combat managed to pull away from each other as the blast struck. They met each other's eyes, all seemingly trying to stare the other down, but really all three of them were charging up an attack. Maddy laughed as she sensed Knuckle's transformation, before floating backwards on the surface of the water to freeze it under her feet, preparing to attack with all she had. Enna watched the other echidna girl, who was wearing clothes that could be called skimpy.

"Sunaya, why are you here? I mean, why come after me and Jacob?"

"Well, sis, it's a mission. That, and I just LOVE annoying you. Who's the hedgehog?" Enna cursed.

"Your guess is as good as mine. She just rolled up with a bunch of others, but I was too busy fighting you to really deal with them." It was that moment when Maddy decided to attack. Having quickly formed a solid footing for herself, she quickly launched a rapid series of Frost Spears, striking the ground between the two echidnas, making them both leap to the sides. Sunaya quickly used the attack from Maddy as the distraction she needed to get the advantage over her sister. Enna found events rapidly accelerating, beyond what she was willing to accept. She watched as Maddy started forming a ball of highly compressed water and Sunaya started running towards her. Quickly, Enna leapt backwards, forming a pressurized ball of black flames, hurling it at Maddy as Sunaya's sudden fist slash took her in the shoulder. The battle continued to rage.

Shadow and Shade finished placing the explosives on the walls surrounding the power generator. Shadow quickly Chaos Controlled over to the gates at the entrance, noting Sonia's position as he slapped three explosives on the top span. He heard Sonia squeal in surprise. Shadow shrugged, thinking she'd seen the fight between girls, which he had been sensing for a while. However, as he turned, he caught sign of a massive pulsating mob of Mobians heading towards them. A lot of them bore a resemblance to people he knew, at the point of almost being identical… Shadow shivered. The presence of recolors wasn't normally a problem. He was friends with many, who had gradually changed their appearance by styling their hair, adding clothes and on rare occasions changing species with specialized surgery. However, so many concentrated in one place in these sort of numbers hinted towards one thing: Trolls. He could have sworn he heard some of them talking, at this distance. Quickly, Shadow Chaos Controlled back to Shade.

"We've got a Troll issue coming. We've almost completed, so I'll go plant the last few, you help Sonia get ready for a massive fight." Shade looked at his father quizzically.

"How many Trolls are we talking here? I mean, they haven't appeared in any great numbers since the last war with the Editors…" The look on Shadow's face said differently.

"Just go!" he ordered, grabbing the last of the explosives. Shade was already halfway to Sonia in that time.

Tails and Kyle were finished copying all the files, and Tails left a present on the main hard drive, a virus made by Ronan. The father-son combo were happy just to sit back and wait for the signal from Knuckles to leave. However, instead of a signal, they saw an echidna's head smash into the thin metal door, creating a massive dent. Tails quickly stood, arming his arm blaster as the door creaked open. Shadow slid in, empty-handed.

"Shadow? What's up? Is there something wrong?" Tails asked, watching Shadow carefully for any sign of insecurity.

"Trolls, 'bout to get here. Full army of them. Look, it's hard to explain, but you guys better be done."

"We are. Let's go!" Quickly, Shadow, Tails and Kyle ran towards the gates.

Will found the fourth gate to be easier than the third to open, the metallic surface giving way after a slight push. However, even as he felt the onrush of power, he didn't feel any physical change. Normally, he would feel his dreads reorient and flow backwards into a massive amount of hair. This time though, all he could feel was his dreadlocks blowing about with energy, the same as his Super form. Groaning, he opened his eyes to see…nothing. He hadn't physically changed at all. He dashed towards Sonic to ask why, flying lightly with greater speed than before. Sonic looked surprised at the speed.

"Will, you just left afterimages. That's pretty fast."

"Really now? It's no visible change from my super form, and only feels more powerful." Will let a single punch fly out into a tree. Where his normal strength would have left a massive slice in it's trunk, his fist passed straight through it and started snapping the tree from that point.

"Woah. That's new…but no reason to like this form. I wonder…" Will closed his eyes again, feeling everyone's eyes sit on him as he drew inwards again.

Knuckles was bored. Once the power difference from Knuckles' Hyper form was shown, Jacob couldn't even keep up his speed, even trying his Chaos Kaio-ken attack that he'd used on Will, but to no effect. Knuckles had more experience than Jacob, and in his Hyper form Jacob's punches became mere pokes. He knew the differences between a Super and Hyper form could be great, as Sonic had proven in the duels the two of them when Knuckles went Super against Sonic's Hyper, and it felt good to do it in reverse. Jacob cursed, now visibly tiring. Knuckles decided that there was no more time to play around; he was more likely to fall asleep than lose this fight. He dropped his head and dashed straight into Jacob, using his speed and power to throw Jacob across the room, before grabbing the echidna and throwing him up against the wall, where Jacob's clothing provided easy hold points for Knuckles' mittens. Knuckles applied the right amount of pressure on the other echidna's neck, nowhere near enough to snap it but enough to cause shortness of breath.

"Now, Jacob, I'm only going to say this once. Is that clear?" A single, meek nod from the golden, extremely frightened echidna. "If you go ANYWHERE near Will or anyone in my family, then I will make it my business to obliterate you and whomever you are working with." Another nod. "Finally, I want you to just…disappear. You've got the power to do it, so just Chaos Control away, find yourself a nice young girl and settle down. That way, if I'm forced to look for you, I know not to go anywhere around here. OK?" A final nod. "Oh yes, while I'm holding you back…" Knuckles made a squeezing motion around Jacob's shoulder, draining the energy from Jacob's super form while lessening his strength against the young echidna to prevent damage, before simply dropping the echidna, who crawled away from Knuckles, a massive ball of bruises. Knuckles sighed, grabbing the satchel of emeralds and the jacket, and heading off to find Maddy.

Maddy found herself in a bit of a problem. Both of the echidnas were pyrokinetics, and both could defend against her attacks with ease. To be fair, both struggled to penetrate her defenses, but neither of them used normal fire. The more gothic looking one, Enna, used black flames, one of the hottest and hardest to control kinds. The other, peppier one, Sunaya, used blue flames of a stunning intensity. She was just as talented as her sister was with fire. Sunaya was also a gymnast. Maddy noticed that most attacks that either Enna or herself threw at Sunaya were dodged with pure flexibility. Maddy found herself dodging a black Flamethrower, only to find a bright blue fireball. Maddy leapt away from it as it exploded into a massive pillar of fire, a startling reminder of the girls' powers. Suddenly, Sunaya went flying as Hyper Knuckles burst out of a wall, smashing Sunaya away with a Chaos-energy filled palm as he went. Enna attacked with a intensely fast assault of smaller flamethrowers, one from each finger, but Knuckles just took it in his stride, lashing out again with Chaos Energy, which sent Enna into the water trench Maddy had been manipulating. Both of them raced to where the others stood, noting the appearance of the Trolls. Hyper Knuckles didn't even stop moving, Chaos Controlling the entire group in a single movement, sending them all away from the base as the explosives went off in sequence, supposedly destroying the many soldiers of Jacob's Legion within there. Nobody was particularly unhappy to sense its destruction.


	16. Release

**Chapter Fifteen: Release**

Blood walked over to Sonic and Ronan, who were still watching Will intently. He'd been experimenting with new hairstyles, and seemed to have found a cool one.

"What's he doing?" he asked, looking over Will's Hyper form, with no recognition of it.

"I'm not sure. He got really angry when he didn't change when going Hyper, then he just sat down and started doing this. Nice new look by the way." Sonic responded, unable to take his eyes of Will. Ronan seemed tired, holding an unlit cigar, watching the Hyper-formed echidna with a growing sense of dread. There was a rustling in the nearby bushes, which attracted Blood's attention.

"Flickie. I threw it there five minutes ago, and it got stuck." Ronan muttered without looking at the bright red hedgehog once. The rustling got louder, then a bright flash of light was seen, with Knuckles' group returning from their mission. All of them were chattering loudly bar Shadow, Knuckles and Shade, all of whom were staring at Will. Knuckles continued to power down, as the three beings sensed the fires of power within Will growing rapidly, faster than they had thought possible.

Within Will's mind, his fury at only being able to access his Super and Hyper forms was raging, causing him to open the gates. He'd easily opened up to the sixth gate, but he found the sixth gate even harder to open than any of the others. The large metallic wall in the flow of energy was damming the flow, but it had a weakness none of the others had: a small set of holes allowing the power through. Within his mind, Will moved an image of his hand into a hole before suddenly twisting. The force of doing that sprung the gate open, so Will allowed the energy he was withholding to sustain his Hyper form flow with it, although he was aware of the fact that his body was heating up.

Ronan noticed the haze around Will first, racing over to slap a set of energy-measuring patches upon Will's fur, before checking his watch. He started muttering words in a strange language: guttural tones, mixed with growls and a few words that Knuckles recognized as Bes'kar, language of the ancient echidnas, including a large amount of curses and such.

"What's wrong, Ronan?" Tails asked, noticing Knuckles' worry.

"The idiot is opening his gates rapidly enough to cause the air around him to heat up. Unlike opening them all at once, which might cause an effect like a lightning strike, this rapid opening is causing his body to heat up, and form an aura of energy, almost like the visible coating of energy around a lightning bolt." Ronan swore again, noticing a sudden burst of energy. "Looks like he reached the seventh gate."

Will almost laughed in his mind. The seventh gate was a larger version of the sixth, complete with larger holes. He repeated his method of unlocking, engulfing himself in a torrent of energy that attempted to knock him over, but he shielded himself and raced to the next gate. The eighth gate was unlike all the rest, resembling a miniature Master Emerald shrine, complete with a multicolored gemstone in the center: it glowed gold, blue, red and gray and white all at once. Will could see the method of unlocking it instantly, running up the shrine and placing his hands on the gemstone, shooting some of his own energy into it. The stone seemed to give, then suddenly seemed to explode with energy, engulfing Will in it's power.

Ronan jumped back with a start as the flames coated Will's body, cloaking him as he stood. Maddy and Sonia screamed as Lara-Su and Manic arrived, both having felt the energy burst Will had triggered. Shadow and Shade both grabbed their wrists, grasping their inhibitor rings.

"Shadow, Shade, slow him down! Everyone else, get back!" Ronan roared, both of his tails spinning like a typhoon. Shadow quickly ripped his inhibitor rings off, allowing himself to be completely coated in a red fiery coating. Shade was barely seconds behind his father, glowing a deep green with the flames concentrated along his streaks. The two hedgehogs raced in to attack Will, hoping they weren't too late. Will smiled, noticing them coming, but not moving. Shade attacked first, spinning and planting a punch straight into Will's chest, or rather, tried to. The flames on the young echidna's chest solidified, making it feel like punching a brick wall. Will then swung his arm, and the flames of energy coating it extended it's reach, throwing Shade backwards into a tree. The impact scorched the trunk, but Shade was back up and racing. Shadow formed Chaos Energy into a spear shape, but instead of throwing it, he swung off his foot and stabbed it at Will, again failing to breach the flames coating him. Will spun on his off-foot, launching his flaming aura out in the shape of his leg as he threw a kick at Shadow, the aura sending him flying, which Shadow reversed and raced back towards the flaming echidna. Maddy summoned her hammer, but Ronan placed his hands on it.

"That would be useless, Maddy. It won't stop him, unless…can I borrow this for a sec? I've got an idea."

"Sure, I think…" Maddy surrendered her grip on the big mallet, and Ronan took off, dragging the heavy tool behind him. In that time, Shadow and Shade had started dueling with Will, with Shade repeatedly spindashing him while Shadow used his ultimate electrical technique, one taught to him by his 'brother', the Lightning Blade. Neither had an effect on Will, who smashed Shade away with a motion like swinging a bat then deflected Shadow's Lightning Blade with a flaming red version of the same technique. That was enough for Knuckles, Sonic and Blood, all of whom formed partial-super transformations in the form of Super cloaks, then raced in to join the fight, Knuckles aiming high with a diving punch at the same moment as Sonic dove for his feet on a different angle. Will dropped, using a sweeping kick extended by his flaming coating to knock Sonic away while a tail of energy emerged from his back and wrapped around Knuckles' hand, throwing him away. Blood used his rapid punch technique, sure that it would break through Will's guard. Unfortunately, Will in his flaming aura countered with his own rapid punches, exceeding the speed of Blood's shots, making the red and blue hedgehog start to duck and weave, but giving him a good view of Will's eyes. The normally dual-ringed eyes were now a deep orange, with long, cat-like pupils and silvery whites. Suddenly, they returned to normal, rolling inwards as Will suddenly slumped forwards, unconscious, the flames disappearing rapidly. Behind him stood Ronan, sweating profusely from the effort of striking Will with the heavy mallet.

"Well, that stopped him," he panted, before suddenly freezing as he heard the sound of guns being cocked and aimed.

"Drop the mallet, fox. You're under arrest for war crimes and now attempted murder, by order of King Elias Acorn of the Acorn Kingdom, and Sally Acorn, former head of the Freedom Fighters and second-in-line for the throne." Knuckles was shocked to see a large group of Royal Secret Service members and Freedom Fighters there, all armed. The leader, Geoffrey St. John, held his wrist-mounted crossbow at Ronan, while his wife Hershey slapped power-inhibitor handcuffs onto the fox's wrists. However, before they could be slid up to his wrist, a single Will-O' Wisp escaped, and quickly turned black. Geoffrey quickly tried to shoot it, as did many of his people, but the small robot reached an amazing speed and disappeared, teleporting away. Ronan looked at the others as he was manhandled away by two burly guards, but he snuck a look at the dumbfounded others, nodding to Knuckles, who took it as a gesture of peace. He looked at the others.

"Looks like Tails is going to have to do some digging for a legal loophole or some form of release thing. Still, we better be getting back." Maddy had moved over to Will's side, pressing water-covered hands against the area where Ronan hit him, before closing her eyes and Chaos Controlling the two of them away. That was quickly followed by the others, leaving the forest quiet, as if waiting for something in the future.


	17. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Jacob awoke in a dark room and instantly thought he was encased in rubble, the recollection of the battle with Hyper Knuckles flowing into his mind. However, his senses expanded slightly and he could see Enna unconscious nearby. With a great amount of effort, the injured echidna dragged himself over to Enna. There were footsteps nearby, someone or something moving around. Jacob sat up, attempting to use Chaos Energy to increase his sight range, but his senses of pain returned and he felt a massive stinging pain across the left-hand side of his face, causing him to touch it lightly and feel the raised flesh that probably came from a strike across the face from one of Knuckle's fiery fists or a falling piece of rubble from the base's destruction. Finally, his sight came into focus, although he knew that only his right eye was open. He could see a bright green Sonic recolor with his normal quills added in front of a mass of green spines and hair. Next to this big-haired hedgehog was an Amy recolor, or at least that's what Jacob thought it was. Her hair and muzzle flowed into each other, a deep black. Her hair was tipped in almost neon pink, with the same color for her dress and shoes. Her eyes had no whites to them, being completely pink. She also wore green armbands similar to Shadow's, which glowed slightly in the dark. She spoke, and Jacob was stunned by her voice: it was deep for a girl, slightly deeper than Enna's. However, even with that depth, the darkness in her words was clear.

"Hello, Jacob. I'm sorry we couldn't get you out sooner. I want you to join us."

"Who are you?" Jacob could hear how dry and croaky his voice was, but the woman didn't seem to care.

"You can call me Phantom. I have watched you and your soldiers for a long time, and I would be honored if you join us."

"Who's 'us' and why should I join you?" Now Jacob's voice was returning to normal, regaining his strength and confidence as he spoke. Phantom nodded at the green hedgehog, who in turn nodded in Jacob's direction. Jacob felt two pairs of hands wrap around his arms and hoist him to his feet. He twisted his head slightly each way and saw a yellow Sonic recolor with purple eyes on his left, and an extremely ugly man in a red cap and shirt hoisting him up. Phantom made a theatrical gesture, and Jacob started to feel weird.

"We are waiting for the True Lord of Mobius to return," she announced theatrically, "and any who oppose us and him shall be looking towards swift destruction." Phantom extended her hand to Jacob, who took two shaky steps towards her and took it.

"Are you one of us?" she asked.

"You better believe it, Phantom!" was his response.


End file.
